Feb 11 2014

CubeSats deployed from International Space Station

The first of the Planet Lab Dove CubeSats were deployed from the ISS on February 11, 2014 about 0831 UT

The first of the Planet Lab Dove CubeSats were deployed from the ISS on February 11, 2014 about 0831 UT

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA successfully deployed the first of the 33 CubeSats that were launched from the Wallops Flight Facility, VA to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Cygnus freighter on January 9.

The first two of the Flock-1 constellation of 28 Dove 3U CubeSats developed by Planet Labs were deployed at about 0831 UT Feb 11 into a 409 x 418 km orbit with another two Dove CubeSats deployed at 1241 UT.

ISS Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM)

ISS Kibo Japanese Experiment Module (JEM)

Eight NanoRacks deployers are installed on the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP). Each deployer has a capacity of 6U and so can hold up to six 1U CubeSats or two 3U CubeSats. They are carried by Japanese Experiment Module-Remote Manipulator System (JEM-RMS).

Two 3U CubeSats can be deployed every one to two orbits to prevent collisions. For Flock-1 two deployments took place each day.

Deployment summary, all times UT, possible object numbers in brackets
0831 Feb 11 – Flock-1-1, Flock-1-2 (39512, 39515)
1241 Feb 11 – Flock-1-3, Flock-1-4  (39516, 39517)
0235 Feb 12 – Flock-1-5, Flock-1-6 deployment fails
???? Feb 12 – Flock-1-7, Flock-1-8 deployment fails ?
0830 Feb 12 – Flock-1-9, Flock-1-10 (39518, 39519)
0820 Feb 13 – Flock-1-5, Flock-1-6 (39520, 39521)
0415 Feb 14 – Flock-1-11, Flock-1-12
1146 Feb 14 – Flock-1-13, Flock-1-14
0700 Feb 15 – Flock-1-7, Flock-1-8
1055 Feb 15 – Flock-1-15, Flock-1-16 (39531, 39532)

The deployment pods were then returned to the airlock to be loaded with the final batch of CubeSats.

Planet Labs CubeSat Constellation

Planet Labs CubeSat Constellation

In addition to the 28 Planet Labs CubeSats there are four amateur radio CubeSats – LituanicaSat-1, LitSat-1, ArduSat-2, UAPSat-1 – and the 915 MHz SkyCube.

Kibo Robot Arm CubeSat Deployment

Graphic of Kibo Robot Arm CubeSat deployment

LituanicaSat-1 carries a 145/435 MHz FM transponder while LitSat-1 is thought to carry a 435/145  MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications.

The IARU coordinated frequencies are listed as:

LituanicaSAT-1
• FM Transponder Uplink 145.950 MHz Downlink 435.180 MHz
• AX25 Uplink 145.850 MHz AX25 Downlink 437.550 MHz
• CW Beacon 437.275 MHz
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Lituanicasat1

Planet Labs Dove CubeSats emerging from NanoRacks deployer February 11, 2014

Planet Labs Dove CubeSats emerging from NanoRacks deployer February 11, 2014

LitSat-1
• SSB Transponder Uplink 435.180 MHz Downlink 145.950 MHz
• AX25 Uplink 437.550 MHz Downlink 145.850 MHz
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/palydovas

ArduSat-2
•  9k6 MSK CCSDS data format downlink 437.? MHz
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575960623/ardusat-your-arduino-experiment-in-space

UAPSAT
• AX.25 Packet Radio uplink 145.980 MHz downlink 437.385 MHz

Two Planet Labs Dove CubeSats deployed from the ISS February 11, 2014

Two Planet Labs Dove CubeSats deployed from the ISS February 11, 2014

Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA https://twitter.com/Astro_Wakata

NanoRacks https://twitter.com/nanoracks/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nanoracks

Close-up of Planet Labs Dove CubeSats leaving NanoRacks deployer February 11, 2014

Close-up of Planet Labs Dove CubeSats leaving NanoRacks deployer February 11, 2014

Planet Labs https://twitter.com/planetlabs

A Dove in Space https://twitter.com/adoveinspace

Southern Stars https://twitter.com/south_stars

Video of NanoRacks interview: Deploying CubeSats from the Space Station
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/31/video-deploying-cubesats-from-the-space-station/

CubeSats deployments are streamed live at http://m.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream

Jonathan’s Space Report (JSR) has been covering robotic and human spaceflight activity for 25 years
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/09/a-quarter-century-of-jonathans-space-report/
Twitter http://twitter.com/planet4589

Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA prepares NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers

Astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA prepares NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers

Feb 10 2014

New launch dates for SpaceX and Soyuz-2.1b Fregat-M

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell - Image credit SpaceX

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell – Image credit SpaceX

There are new launch dates for both SpaceX CRS-3 launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Soyuz-2.1b, Fregat-M which will be launching from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

On his website Mineo Wakita JE9PEL provides the following information:

SpaceX CRS-3 (Dragon C5) Falcon 9 v1.1 is now planned for March 16, 2014 at 0841 UT. It should be carrying these satellites:
• All-Star/THEIA, Colorado Space Grant Consortium, 2401.700 MHz
• Hermes-2, Colorado Space Grant Consortium, 437.425 MHz
• Ho’oponopono-2, University of Hawaii, 427.220 MHz 9600 bps FSK / GMSK
• LMRSat, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• SporeSat, Santa Clara University, 437.100 MHz and 2401.2-2431.2 MHz
• TechCube-1, NASA Goddard
• TSAT (TestSat-Lite), Taylor University

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

A model of UKube-1 on display at the 2013 UK Space Conference in Glasgow

Soyuz-2.1b, Fregat-M is planned for June 1, 2014 at 1625 UT with these satellites:
•AISSat-2, University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies, Norway
• Baumanets-2 [pulled from launch manifest], Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia
• DX-1, Dauria Aerospace, Russia
• Meteor-M-N2, NPP VNIIEM, Russia
• M3MSat [pulled from launch manifest], CSA / COM DEV, Canada
• Relek (MKA-PN-2), Lavochkin, Russia
• SkySat-2, Skybox Imaging, USA
• TechDemoSat-1, SSTL, UK
• UKube-1, UK Space Agency, UK
• Venta-1 [pulled from launch manifest], Ventspils University, Latvia

UKube-1 communications subsystem:
• Telemetry downlink 145.840 MHz
• 2401.0 MHz S Band Downlink
• 437.425-437.525 MHz UKSEDS myPocketQub Downlink
• FUNcube subsystem beacon 145.915 MHz 1200 bps BPSK
• 400 mW inverting linear transponder for SSB and CW
– 435.080 -435.060 MHz Uplink
– 145.930 -145.950 MHz Downlink

Source Mineo Wakita JE9PELhttp://tinyurl.com/JE9PEL

Feb 9 2014

A quarter century of Jonathan’s Space Report

Jonathan McDowell - Image credit JSR

Jonathan McDowell – Image credit JSR

Jonathan’s Space Report (JSR) has been covering robotic and human spaceflight activity for 25 years.

In the latest issue UK born Jonathan McDowell writes:

The first issue of JSR was sent to an internal email distribution at my then and current place of work, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, on 1989 Jan 30, a quarter century ago. This was shortly after I had moved from the UK to the USA. As a teenager in England I had been lucky enough to attend meetings of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) and learn from experts such as Phillip Clark, Anthony Kenden, and Rex Hall, whose names will be familiar to readers of BIS magazines.

A family friend at the Royal Aircraft Establishment had put me on the distribution for the RAE Tables of Earth Satellites at age 15, and I spent my evenings with a pocket calculator plotting orbits of Soviet spy satellites instead of studying for my A Level exams. I nevertheless made it in to Cambridge, and emerged eight years later with a decent grounding in maths, astrophysics and computer science. This lets me combine public information on space missions with my own independent number-crunching of the orbital data, and I try and make sure that each issue of JSR includes at least some original material.

JSR began as a weekly report, but has become irregular and closer to monthly as my free time has shrunk. The distribution methods for JSR changed from email to ftp, Usenet, and then WWW; JSR now also has an associated social-media channel http://twitter.com/planet4589. But the JSR content remains as plain text (so that I can prepare it rapidly), and the focus remains unchanged: a concise summary of human and robotic extraterrestrial activity, aimed at a technically literate audience. My goal is to provide a journal of record for the space age, sufficiently objective and international in outlook that readers from all countries and of all political leanings can rely on it. I began it because I felt there was a need for such an information source. As the saying goes, if you want it done right…

Read the latest JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html

Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back

Free Subscription: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr

Twitter: http://twitter.com/planet4589

British Interplanetary Society https://www.facebook.com/bis.space

Feb 7 2014

Can Radio Hams Receive NASA’s ISEE-3/ICE ?

ISEE-3 - ICE Spacecraft - Image credit NASA

ISEE-3 – ICE Spacecraft – Image credit NASA

A post on the Planetary Society website wonders if radio amateurs will be able to pick up the signal from ISEE-3/ICE as it passes Earth.

Emily Lakdawalla says: The International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3), a spacecraft that was launched in 1978 to study Earth’s magnetosphere and repurposed in 1983 to study two comets. Renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), it has been in a heliocentric orbit since then, traveling just slightly faster than Earth. It’s finally catching up to us from behind, and will return to Earth in August, 2014. It’s still functioning, broadcasting a carrier signal that the Deep Space Network successfully detected in 2008. Twelve of its 13 instruments were working when we last checked on its condition, sometime prior to 1999.

The 36 year-old satellite is still apparently operational but it seems NASA can no longer send commands to it because the transmitters to do so were removed in 1999.

Emily sums up: So ISEE-3 will pass by us, ready to talk with us, but in the 30 years since it departed Earth we’ve lost the ability to speak its language. I wonder if ham radio operators will be able to pick up its carrier signal — it’s meaningless, I guess, but it feels like an honorable thing to do, a kind of salute to the venerable ship as it passes by.

The satellite carries Redundant S-band transponders, each with 5 Watt RF output

Transponder A:
2090.66 MHz RHCP uplink, command or ranging
2270.40 MHz RHCP downlink, telemetry or ranging

Transponder B:
2041.95 MHz LHCP uplink, command
2217.50 MHz LHCP downlink, telemetry

Transmit antenna: medium gain with dual inputs for simultaneous right and left hand circular polarization downlink, 8 rows of 4 elements, 7 dBi, ±6° beamwidth, multibeam, electronically steerable, four lobe, omni directional coverage in azimuth

Receive antenna: 2042 MHz, intermediate gain, 1 row of 4 elements, 0 dBi, ±45° beamwidth

Read the Planetary Society ISEE-3/ICE post at
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/02070836-isee-3.html

ISEE-3/ICE Telecommunications Summary
http://mdkenny.customer.netspace.net.au/ISEE-3.pdf

ISEE-3/ICE on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ISEE3returns

Feb 7 2014

ISS Ham Video commissioning postponed

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

ESA have postponed the International Space Station (ISS) Ham Video Commissioning until March 8.

Possible dates for the four Commissioning steps are March 8 (step 1),
March 9 (step 2), and March 16 (step 3).
Step 3 could be turned into step 4.
These dates are all on the weekend.

With this agenda, we have just 1 week of blank transmissions.

The agenda is still to be finalized.

73,
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Europe Chair

ISS Ham Video Commissioning – Blank Transmissions
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/26/iss-ham-video-commissioning-blank-transmissions/

Feb 7 2014

Ham radio CubeSat deployment postponed

Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA installs ISS CubeSat Deployer

Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA installs ISS CubeSat Deployer

The deployment of amateur radio CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS) planned for Thursday, February 6 has been postponed.

Kibo Robot Arm CubeSat Deployment

Kibo Robot Arm CubeSat Deployment

NASA say:

Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA spent his morning working in the Japanese Kibo module to install a deployer mechanism that will be used in concert with the Kibo robotic arm to “launch” the first set of NanoRacks CubeSats. Wakata, who ran into some difficulty last week installing an electronics box that would help control the deployment of the mini-satellites, successfully installed that box after troubleshooting an alignment issue.  The deployment of the first batch of CubeSats, which had originally been scheduled for this week before being postponed following last week’s installation issue, has been postponed further to make sure that the CubeSats do not fall into the intended orbit of the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite launching later this month. The exact date of the CubeSat deployment is still being evaluated.

NASA http://www.nasa.gov/content/crew-conducts-science-begins-unloading-russian-cargo-craft/

Video: Deploying CubeSats from the Space Station
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/31/video-deploying-cubesats-from-the-space-station/

ISS CubeSats https://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/04/ham-radio-cubesats-to-deploy-thursday/