More Hams in Space: Es'hail 2

Interest Groups Amateur Radio
#1

Tomorrow (11/15/2018 14:46 CST), SpaceX will be launching the Es’hail 2 satellite into geostationary orbit. The satellite’s main mission is to provide digital TV service to Qatar but it also carries two P4A amateur transponders. These should provide an amateur link as wide as Brazil to India!

While this satellite might be difficult to work from the states, it will be the first amateur radio hardware to reach geostationary orbit! It’s certainly a historical event worth sharing and I’ll be watching the launch tomorrow with anticipation!

More about the satellite:

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#3

Earth - Moon - Satellite? :slight_smile:

#4

It’s still interesting even if we can’t reach it from here. Hopefully it’s success will help other geostationary projects move forward. Wouldn’t it be neat if we had a big linked repeater system in space that doesn’t need the Internet for the links?

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#5

Are any of the Russian amsats still operational ? I know there were several in Molyina orbits that gave very wide coverage much of the time.

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