Australis-OSCAR 5

Names	AO-5
COSPAR ID	1970-008B
SATCAT no.	04321
Spacecraft properties
Bus	AMSAT
Manufacturer	University of Melbourne
Launch mass	17.7 kg (39 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	23 January 1970, 11:31:02 UTC
Rocket	Delta N6 (Delta D76)
Launch site	Vandenberg, SLC-2W
Contractor	Douglas Aircraft Company
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	1432 km [1]
Apogee altitude	1478 km
Inclination	102.04°
Period	115 minutes
AMSAT-OSCAR program ← OSCAR 4 AMSAT-OSCAR 6 →

Australis-OSCAR 5 (a.k.a. AO-5) is an amateur radio satellite that was launched into Low Earth Orbit on 23 January 1970 by a Thor Delta launcher from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California. AO-5 was launched piggyback with TIROS-M (ITOS-1) weather satellite).^[2]

Spacecraft

Built by students at The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Battery powered, Australis-OSCAR 5 transmitted telemetry on both 2 meter (144.050 MHz at 50 mW) and 10 meter (29.450 MHz at 250 mW) bands that operated for 23 and 46 days respectively. Passive magnetic attitude stabilization was performed by carrying two bar magnets to align with the Earth's magnetic field in order to provide a favorable antenna footprint. The University of Melbourne compiled tracking reports from hundreds of stations in 27 countries.

Firsts

• First amateur satellite to be remotely controlled.
• First amateur satellite launch coordinated by new AMSAT organization.
• Switch to Arabic numbering for this and future OSCAR satellites, from earlier Roman numeral usage (I, II, III, IV) by Project Oscar.