HealthNet

Not to be confused with Health Net.

HealthNet was a satellite communication service that provided healthcare workers in developing nations with access to current medical literature. It also allowed them to exchange information with each other and with colleagues in developed nations. It was operated by American nonprofit SatelLife.

Creation

The idea of SatelLife began in 1985 as a project to include healthcare organizations from the southern hemisphere in global health discussions. It was proposed by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.^[1] The organization was founded in 1989, chaired by Bernard Lown.^[2]

Services

The HealthNet constellation provided email services, access to news, electronic conferences, and offline access to websites using a store-and-forward message scheme. The news included selected abstracts and summaries of major medical journals. It also included several newsletters published by HealthNet. Electronic conferences were for discussing medical topics electronically, including ProMED-mail.^[3]

Constellation

Healthsat-1

Main article: UoSAT-3

Healthsat-1 was launched in 1990 as UoSAT-3 (named for the University of Surrey, one of the mission sponsors). It was later transferred to SatelLife and renamed Healthsat-1.^[4]

Healthsat-2

Healthsat 2

Mission type	Communication
Operator	SatelLife, Wavix
COSPAR ID	1993-061E
SATCAT no.	22827
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Microsat-70
Manufacturer	SSTL
Start of mission
Launch date	26 September 1993, 01:45 UTC
Rocket	Ariane-40 V59[5]
Launch site	Kourou ELA-2
Contractor	Arianespace
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	LEO
Perigee altitude	797 kilometres (495 mi)
Apogee altitude	821 kilometres (510 mi)
Inclination	98.6º
Period	100.8 minutes

Healthsat-2 (later WavSat-1) was purpose-built for the HealthNet constellation by Surrey Satellite Technology.^[6] In 1993, it provided communications to CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent while it was in the Northwest passage, reported as the first use of Low Earth Orbit communications near the North Pole.^[7] In 1998, SatelLife announced an agreement to share unused capacity from Healthsat-2 with Volunteers In Technical Assistance (VITA), who would operate Healthsat-2 as VITASat 1R.^[8][9] Operations were transferred to satellite communications company Wavix, which continued operating the satellite as WavSat-1.^[6]