NASA announced that AMSAT’s Fox-1 FM transponder spacecraft has been assigned a launch in 2014.

For details on the launch vehicle, targeted launch date, orbit specifics, and more, please attend the AMSAT Forum and visit the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention this weekend.

AMSAT’s Fox-1 CubeSat aims to provide these features:

Fox-1 is designed to operate in sunlight without batteries once the battery system fails. This applies lessons learned from AO-51 and ARISSat-1 operations.
In case of IHU failure Fox-1 aims to continue to operate its FM repeater in a basic, ‘zombie sat’ mode, so that the repeater remains on-the-air.
Fox-1 is designed as the immediate replacement for AO-51. Its U/V (Mode B) FM transponder will make it even easier to work with modest equipment.
From the ground user’s perspective, the same FM amateur radio equipment used for AO-51 may be used for Fox-1.

AMSAT Bulletin Board - AMSAT-BB - http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/