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In 1967, a group of students from the Melbourne
University Astronautical Society came up with an idea to build a small
amateur radio satellite.
It was just 10 years after the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched and Australia had yet to enter the space race.Russia had successfully launched Yuri Gagarin into space and the race was on to put the first person on the Moon.
But it was the hard work and persistence of the young students that convinced NASA to launch the Australis OSCAR 5 into space.
Now based in Adelaide, the project's coordinator Owen Mace said the technology at the time was "cutting edge".
"[The satellite would] transmit details about itself — how it was tumbling, the temperature and the like," Mr Mace told ABC Radio Adelaide's Nightlife program.
"It carried the first command system of an amateur radio satellite; for the first time we could control the satellite."
Photo:
Owen Mace looks over some of the Australis Oscar 5 launch memorabilia. (ABC Radio Adelaide: Brett Williamson)
The long wait for take-off
The satellite was the size of two shoe boxes — a payload considered huge by today's standards.Industry experts touted that its size and weight meant it could not be taken into space.
Determined to complete the project, the team sent the module to America with a request to launch it — and waited.
"It sat for two years in a garage awaiting a launch on a US Air Force rocket," Mr Mace said.
The students were finally put in contact with a NASA engineer with the help of amateur radio users around the world.
A shared passion for radio — the engineer's manager and unit manager were also amateur radio operators — eventually saw the student satellite find its way onto a spacecraft.
Australis OSCAR 5 was launched by NASA on January 24, 1970.
"We're told that it will be there long after we have departed and will be space junk for about 100,000 years," Mr Mace said.
You can learn more about the night sky with the special ABC event Stargazing Live.
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