Phase-3A2010年03月16日 19時36分

1980年5月23日、Ariane-2 ロケットで打ち上げられる予定でしたが、ロケットの
1段目エンジンの不調のため、打ち上げ数分後に大西洋に落下しました。中継で
は「lift off!」の声に続き、「One engine trouble, Filight is not nominal」
という緊迫した状況だったそうです。

Phase-3A (AO-09)

At the end of the 1970s, as more and more Amateur Radio operators were
sharing the fun of talking via satellite, AMSAT began work on a new
generation of larger Phase-3 satellites. The third-generation would be
more complex spacecraft, using higher radio frequencies, and flying
Molniya orbits. Phase-3 satellites would be over ground stations for
hours at a time.

The first Phase-3 spacecraft, nine years in planning and four years in
construction, was built, integrated, and tested at Goddard. Hams in Canada,
Hungary, Japan, West Germany and the United States built parts for the
spacecraft.

The satellite was to be launched on the second flight of Europe's new
Ariane rocket from a site outside Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast
coast of South America. In a promising development, the first Ariane rocket
made a successful flight from Kourou in December 1979.  Unfortunately, the
second Ariane and Phase-3A were destroyed May 23, 1980, in a European Space
Agency launch failure during liftoff from Kourou.

With the launch window open that day, breakdowns and rain in French Guiana
forced three hours of holds. Finally, a go order was signaled and the Ariane
fired. Three minutes into the flight, as the Ariane was lumbering upward from
the South American coastline, the Ariane's first stage failed. The Phase-3A
hamsat fell to the Atlantic Ocean and sank hundreds of feet to the bottom.
Within weeks, AMSAT began work on Phase-3B which would go to space in 1983.

http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Hamsats/Hamsats1980s.html
http://www.amsat-dl.org/go-mars/pdf/p3a.pdf