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Orbcomm

ORBCOMM is a partnership of Orbital Sciences Corp., Teleglobe Inc of Montreal and Technology Resources Industries Bhd. of KL, Malaysia. ORBCOMM aims to deploy a 36-satellite constelation in 45 degree inclined orbital planes providing global communications to hand-held terminals. Other targeted applications are truck and cargo tracking, oil and pipeline monitoring, and remote site data collection.

Two demonstration satellites built by Orbital Sciences Corp were launched on the April 3rd 1995, and then in sets of two or eight with most launches taking place in 1998. Commercial service in the U.S. was started on the 1^st February 1996, providing two way messaging and position location services. Commercial service has now extended to many more countries. The spacecraft separated in planes are tabulated below.

ID	INTL.	Name	Serial	Orbit		Freq.	Plane	Status
23545	1995-017A	Orbcomm F1	FM1	728 x 747 x 69.98	199.1	f1	F	Off
23546	1995-017B	Orbcomm F2	FM2	728 x 747 x 69.98	198.5	f1	F	Operational

ID	INTL.	Name	Serial	Orbit		Freq.	Plane	Status
25112	1997-084A	Orbcomm A1	FM5	812 x 823 x 45.03	297.7	f3	A	Operational
25113	1997-084B	Orbcomm A2	FM6	813 x 822 x 45.03	300.7	f3	A	Operational
25114	1997-084C	Orbcomm A3	FM7	813 x 822 x 45.03	301.0	f4	A	Off
25115	1997-084D	Orbcomm A4	FM8	813 x 823 x 45.02	300.5	f4	A	Operational
25116	1997-084E	Orbcomm A5	FM9	814 x 822 x 45.02	301.0	f3	A	Operational
25117	1997-084F	Orbcomm A6	FM10	812 x 823 x 45.02	301.2	f3	A	Operational
25118	1997-084G	Orbcomm A7	FM11	813 x 823 x 45.02	301.2	f3	A	Operational
25119	1997-084H	Orbcomm A8	FM12	812 x 823 x 45.02	301.2	f4	A	Off

    

ID	INTL.	Name	Serial	Orbit		Freq.	Plane	Status
25158	1998-007B	Orbcomm G1	FM3	781 x 874 x 107.99	297.9	f2	G	Operational
25159	1998-007C	Orbcomm G2	FM4	783 x 871 x 107.99	298.1	f2	G	Operational

 

ID	INTL.	Name	Serial	Orbit		Freq.	Plane	Status
25413	1998-046A	Orbcomm B5	FM17	813 x 824 x 45.00	61.0	f6	B	Operational
25414	1998-046B	Orbcomm B6	FM18	810 x 827 x 45.00	59.7	f5	B	Operational
25415	1998-046C	Orbcomm B7	FM19	809 x 828 x 45.00	61.1	f4	B	Operational
25416	1998-046D	Orbcomm B8	FM20	811 x 826 x 45.00	61.2	f4	B	Operational
25417	1998-046E	Orbcomm B4	FM16	812 x 825 x 45.00	59.9	f4	B	Operational
25418	1998-046F	Orbcomm B3	FM15	812 x 825 x 45.01	60.0	f5	B	Operational
25419	1998-046G	Orbcomm B2	FM14	811 x 826 x 45.00	60.4	f6	B	Operational
25420	1998-046H	Orbcomm B1	FM13	813 x 824 x 45.00	60.4	f6	B	Operational

 

ID	INTL.	Name	Serial	Orbit	Freq.		Plane	Status
25475	1998-053A	Orbcomm C1	FM21	811 x 825 x 45.01	f7	181.6	C	Operational
25476	1998-053B	Orbcomm C2	FM22	814 x 823 x 45.02	f7	178.0	C	Operational
25477	1998-053C	Orbcomm C3	FM23	813 x 823 x 45.02	f4	181.8	C	Operational
25478	1998-053D	Orbcomm C4	FM24	814 x 822 x 45.01	f7	181.7	C	Operational
25479	1998-053E	Orbcomm C5	FM25	813 x 824 x 45.01	f7	181.5	C	Operational
25480	1998-053F	Orbcomm C6	FM26	811 x 825 x 45.01	f4	181.5	C	Operational
25481	1998-053G	Orbcomm C7	FM27	813 x 823 x 45.02	f7	181.6	C	Operational
25482	1998-053H	Orbcomm C8	FM28	813 x 824 x 45.03	f4	181.7	C	Operational

More...[First satellite launch, second launch, last launches][[ORBCOMM]

Spacecraft

The satellite bus design permits eight satellites to be stacked on the Pegasus XL. The disc shaped core has deployable solar panels, and a 6m deployable antenna is carried for the VHF/UHF communications payload.

A yaw reaction wheel is carried which is employed over the poles, and magnetorquers are employed over the equator.

From the last launch in 1999, 3kg extra radiation hardening was included.

Status

ORBCOMM-FM1 was initially reported to have problems communication with subsriber terminals, and ORBCOMM-FM2 developed a problem which prevented it responding to uplink commanding. Both these problems were solved, and the satellites were later reported to be functional.

Licencing

ORBCOMM received FCC licence in the first round of applications, applied for additional spectrum in the second round (for 12 more satellites and increased altitude over equatorial areas), which it received in early 1998.

Frequencies

Each satellite uses a downlink signal at 400.100 MHz, and customer services will be downlinked between 137-138 MHz. The Orbcomm constellation uses a 50kHz gateway to the satellite in the Transit band (149.9 to 150.05MHz) as it is abandoned after January 1997. 8kHz of spectrum is required per satellite. Additional spectrum was requested in the FCC second round of applications for little-LEO licensing.

Active subscriber frequencies are listed below. The modulation is OQPSK at 57.6 kbps.

More [Small satellite constellations][Lloyd's Orbcomm pages]