Gurwin-Techsat: Still alive and operational after nine years in orbit

On July 10, 1998, the Russian Zenith missile put into an 820-km orbit the Resource-01 no.4 spacecraft together with its five piggyback microsatellites-Safir-2, Westpac, Fasat-Bravo, TMSat, and Gurwin-Techsat. After their separation, a cluster of six satellites was created, revolving around the Earth initially in very close orbits. Almost all the satellites, including the carrier, performed well during the first few years after the launch, but now, after nine years of flight, only the Techsat, designed and built in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, that is still operational. A number of experiments, as well as the activities pertaining to the Radio amateur service, were conducted aboard it. The experiments provided a good deal of scientific and technological data, part of which can be considered as a world precedent. A comparison of the Techsat lifetime and performance with those of the microsatellites launched before 2000 makes it evident, that among the small satellites with a versatile experimental program, the Techsat is one of the most successful. Presented here are some of the basic accomplishments of its long-term mission.