I have been laughed at, made fun of, harassed and tormented because I have chosen to speak out about things that I view as wrong with AMSAT-NA. That’s fine. I’m a big boy.
One thing that the AMSAT-NA legacy, incumbents and their friends have attacked me about is that I have called for analyses of failed AMSAT-NA satellites. That has been met with ridicule and even the VP of Engineering stating that he doesn’t have time to do such an analysis. Yes, he really stated that.
Well, on the eve of AMSAT-NA launching another satellite, AMSAT-NA members find themselves with news of another satellite beginning to fail and, predictably, the VP of Operations just shrugs it off as no big deal. Here’s what he had to say about AO-91 which is exhibiting the beginning signs of failure. It’s the same symptoms that other AMSAT-NA Fox satellites exhibit right before they die:
https://www.amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2020-December/080455.htmlI’m going to ask, once again, why the heck does AMSAT-NA keep spending money to launch satellites when we keep having the same type of premature failures?
AO-95 was launched and never worked. HO-107 (not a true AMSAT-NA satellite but carried an AMSAT-NA transponder) died after only a few days. AO-85 died of battery failure. AO-92 died of battery failure. Now AO-91 is dying of battery failure. AMSAT-NA has a documented recent history of satellites either not working or dying prematurely. We have all of these failures but not one failure analysis.
If Chevrolet, Ford had cars that consistently failed, their engineers would be under fire from stakeholders to find and correct the problems. If SpaceX had continued failures, Elon Musk would ensure his engineers fixed the problems. What does AMSAT-NA do? Nothing. If members ask about it, they are ridiculed and told that “space is hard”. Yes, space is hard but it’s made harder when people don’t learn from mistakes.
So, as AMSAT-NA prepares to launch another satellite, I’ll, once again, ask for failure analyses for all of these failed satellites. I’m not an engineer but I am a businessman. As a businessman, I know it’s ridiculous to keep spending money on assets or technology that fails prematurely.
What is it going to take for AMSAT-NA members to care enough to replace the leadership that continues to fail members and the organization? It’s sad to see AO-91 begin to fail, but it’s not unexpected based on the other Fox satellites.