Designed by radio amateurs, AO-7 launched in November of 1974 and is now marking 50 years in orbit. The satellite initially functioned for 6.5 years before its batteries failed. 21 years later AO-7 became operational again.
A very active user of AO-7, Pat Gowain, G3IOR, from the UK, made a telephone call to Perry Klein, W3PK, (first AMSAT President and designer of the VHF/HF transponder). This was on June 21, 2002. Pat wondered if we had launched a new LEO spacecraft? He was hearing Morse Code Telemetry again on the old beacon frequency of AO-7. He played Perry a tape recording. It sure sounded like AO-7 telemetry!
AMSAT News Service will honor AO-7 over the next 3 weeks by publishing articles and stories to a special page on the AMSAT website.
Source: AMSAT
