DeorbitSail – Update after 1st week in space

First Week Update by Project Manager, Chiara Massimiani:

Friday, Successful launch at PSLV from FLP, SDSC SHAR, India. Click for PSLV-C28 Mission page & Youtube Launch Video. Antennas successfully deployed and beacon switched on.
First packets received by AMSAT’er Ken Swaggart W7KKE in Lincoln, OR, USA at 20:29.
First packets received by Surrey Space Centre’s Satellite Operations Centre at 22:21:51 which confirmed satellite state. The DOS Team declare the satellite healthy from downlinked telemetry.
Saturday, first telemetry uplink requests set and successfully received back in the operations centre.
Communication tests activated to confirm satellite mode operations.
Monday, communications tests complete. The team declare the uplink and downlink as sufficient to facilitate the full mission operations.
Thursday, Transition from Launch & Early Operations (LEOP) Communication Mode to Nominal Communication Mode after further uplink tests.
Friday, Begin early ADCS commissioning.
DeorbitSail CubeSat with Sail deployed

Expected operations in the coming month:

Week commencing 20th July: Attitude Determination & Control System (ADCS) Commissioning phase to obtain attitude data.
After three or four weeks: End ADCS Commissioning phase with a stable attitude.
In one month: Payload commissioning phase – solar panel and sail deployment which completes all major operations before deorbiting.

AMSAT and supporters are, again, so very welcome to help out by receiving the beacons so we can accelerate our commissioning. Further plans are available here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/research/space_vehicle_control/deorbitsail/

Please continue to send in your data to deorbitsail.message@gmail.com

AMSAT-UK