FASat-Alfa: Status Report of the First Chilean Satellite

The FASat-Alfa micro satellite project is the first Chilean attempt to put a satellite in space. The Chilean space program was announced on March 1994 by the Commander in Chief of the Chilean Air Force. This program is initiated with the development of the FASat-Alfa mission, which consists in the launching of the FASat-Alfa microsatellite, the installation of the Mission Control Station in Santiago, Chile, and the training of Chilean Air Force engineers. The FASat -Alfa micro satellite is going to be built in a collaborative program between the Chilean Air Force and the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (UK), and is based on a UoSAT bus. The main experiments on board are: Ozone Layer Monitoring Experiment (OLME); Data Transfer Experiment (OTE); an Earth Imaging System (EIS); a navigational experiment using GPS; and Experimental Solid State Data Recording (SSDRE); and an Educational Experiment which help create a space mood in Chile. The program was described briefly in the paper "CONDORSAT, the first Chilean satellite" at the 44th International Astronautical Congress. CONDORSAT was the previous name of FASat-Alfa.