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A SATELLITE WOULD ONLY COST AROUND 65,000 TO LAUNCH.  THE TEAMS FINDINGS
WERE PRESENTED AT THE 2009 AMSAT NA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING.  ALL AGREED
TO BUILD AND HOPEFULLY LAUNCH A NUMBER OF CUBESATS UNDER WHAT IS NOW KNOWN
AS THE FOX PROGRAM.  NOTICING THE GROWING INTEREST IN CUBESATS, AND SEEING
A CHANCE TO ENTICE COLLEGE STUDENTS TO CONSIDER SEEKING CAREERS WITH NASA,
ON FEBRUARY 23, 2010 NASA ANNOUNCED THE PROJECT ELANA CUBESAT LAUNCH
INITIATIVE.  THIS PROGRAM WOULD GIVE SCHOOLS A CHANCE AT FREE LAUNCHES FOR
THEIR CUBESATS.  BY THIS TIME, AMSAT NA WAS WELL ALONG IN THE DESIGN OF ITS
FOX 1A CUBESAT.  NOTING AMSAT NAS ABILITY TO FLY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENTS
ALONG WITH HAM RADIO MODULES, TONY PETITIONED NASA TO CHANGE ELANAS
QUALIFICATION RULES TO INCLUDE NON PROFIT GROUPS.  NASA READILY AGREED.
AMSAT NA THEN APPLIED FOR A FREE ELANA LAUNCH, AND IN FEBRUARY 2012 NASA
SELECTED THE FOX 1A.  AMSAT PLANS TO LAUNCH A TOTAL OF FOUR FOX CUBESATS IN
THE COMING YEARS.  ALL FOX 1 SATELLITES WILL CARRY FM VOICE/LOW SPEED
TELEMETRY TRANSPONDERS, PLUS HIGH SPEED 9600 BPS DATA TRANSPONDERS.  FOX 1A
WILL BE FIRST, WITH A LAUNCH EXPECTED LATER THIS YEAR.  ALONG WITH HAM
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