Thank you very much for visiting Gunter's Space Page. I hope that this site is useful and informative for you.
If you appreciate the information provided on this site, please consider supporting my work by making a simple and secure donation via PayPal. Please help to run the website and keep everything free of charge. Thank you very much.
BlueWalker 1, 2 (BW 1, 2)
BlueWalker 1 [NanoAvionics]
BlueWalker 1 is a 6U-CubeSat built by the Lithuanian company NanoAvionics for AST & Science. AST & Science is also an investor in NanoAvionics.
The satellite was used to test AST & Science's patented technologies for connecting to cellphones in a space environment for their planned SpaceMobile constellation. The manufacturing and payload integration reportedly was done in one month. The satellite proved that AST & Science's system could link directly to cellphones.
The satellite carried a cell phone as a receiver for the ground based test system.
The satellite was released into a lower than planned orbit due to a delayed deployment, reducing the orbital life time slightly.
Two more satellites are planned for 2020 and 2021. It now appears, that BlueWalker 2 is no longer to be launched and that the second test flight is the much larger BlueWalker 3 in 2021, which is to test a 10 m diameter deployable antenna.
| Nation: | USA |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Communications, technology |
| Operator: | NanoAvionics, AST & Science |
| Contractors: | NanoAvionics |
| Equipment: | |
| Configuration: | CubeSat (6U) |
| Propulsion: | |
| Power: | Solar cells, batteries |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | |
| Orbit: | 434 km × 515 km, 97.5° |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BlueWalker 1 (BW 1) | 2019-018AD | 01.04.2019 | Sr SLP | p | PSLV-QL | with EMISAT, Flock-4a 1, ..., 20, Lemur-2 96, ..., 99, M6P, Astrocast 0.2, AISTECHSAT 3, AIS/APRS/ARIS / releasesed in wrong orbit |
| BlueWalker 2 (BW 2) | - | 202x | with ? / cancelled |
- BlueWalker 1, 2 (BW 1, 2)
- BlueWalker 3 (BW 3)
- BlueBird 1, ..., 5
- BlueBird 6, ..., TBD
