04/25/2018

German Orbital Systems (GOS) confirmed via Twitter on April 19 that its D-Star ONE Phoenix[1] spacecraft, launched on February 1, has been lost.

The tweet read, "[W]e're sorry to announce that #DSTAR ONE Phoenix mission was lost. We are currently running the detailed examination regarding the causes of loss. Sorry for the long delay with an answer - we did not want to report unverified information."

D-Star ONE Phoenix and 10 other satellites were launched into orbit from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. Developed by GOS in cooperation with Czech company iSky Technology, D-Star ONE Phoenix carried an Amateur Radio relay payload[2] (call sign DP1GOS). It was to replace the D-Star ONE nanosatellite that failed to attain orbit following a November Soyuz launch from Vostochny.

The 3U CubeSat was equipped with four identical radio modules with D-Star capability, operating in half-duplex mode with a power output of 800 mW. Two of the modules were dedicated to Amateur Radio, configured to work as D-Star repeaters.

GOS said a new D-Star mission is planned for late 2018, "and to ensure that it will be successful, we will launch not one, but three D-Star CubeSats." - Thanks to AMSAT News Service via German Orbital Systems


[1] http://www.d-star.one/
[2] http://www.orbitalsystems.de/d-star-one-technical-details-radio-amateurs/?lang=en

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