[amsat-bb] Re: ISS spacewalk, satellite to be released?

[Nico Janssen]

The sphere-shaped satellite was hand-launched at 18:29 UTC on August 20
during a Russian spacewalk. It is called Sfera and is also known as
TEKh-44 and as Vektor-T. It is a steel ball with diameter 53 cm and
mass 9.2 kg. It is to burn up in the atmospere 2 to 5 months from now.

It will be an interesting satellite for practicing decay predictions.
It is object 38751 or 1998-067CM.

73,
Nico PA0DLO


On 2012-08-20 19:43, Mark L. Hammond wrote:
> Okay--which small satellite is going to be released?  I've lost track...
>
> from www.nasa.gov :
>
> "International Space Station Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka
> and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space
> Agency have begun a planned 6 1/2-hour spacewalk.
>
> The pair will move the Strela-2 hand-operated crane from the Pirs
> docking compartment to the Zarya module, preparing Pirs for its
> replacement with a new laboratory and docking module. They will also
> deploy a small satellite and install debris shields on the Zvezda
> module."
>