Tag Archives: Alba Orbital

Jul 16 2020

SpaceX to launch AMSAT-EA EASAT-2 and Hades satellites

AMSAT-EA Hades PocketQube

AMSAT-EA Hades PocketQube

Spain’s national amateur radio society URE says SpaceX expect to launch the EASAT-2 and Hades satellites in December 2020.

AMSAT-EA, the URE satellite group, is building the satellites together with the European University of Madrid. The launch has been managed through the space broker Alba Orbital based in Glasgow.

EASAT-2 and Hades will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbit between 500 km and 600 km and their main function is to act as analog and digital repeaters for radio amateurs. There is also a camera for SSTV transmissions provided by the Czech Republic that has already flown on the United States Marine Academy PSAT-2 satellite, and has now been adapted to fit into the PocketQube satellites.

Both satellites are based on the PocketQube 1.5P (7.5 x 5 x 5 cm) architecture and represent an evolution of the previous GENESIS platform, whose GENESIS-L and GENESIS-N satellites are expected to fly before the end of the year with Firefly, in a joint collaboration with Fossa Systems and LibreSpace, which also launch their own satellites, all of them within the Picobus dispenser, developed by the latter.

IARU has coordinated these frequencies:
• Hades – uplink 145.925 MHz, downlink 436.888 MHz 
• EASAT-2 – uplink 145.875 MHz, downlink 436.666 MHz

IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination pages http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Source URE https://tinyurl.com/SpainURE

Jun 22 2019

16-year-old ham radio satellite builder in the press

FossaSat-1 PocketQube Satellite

FossaSat-1 PocketQube Satellite

16-year-old radio amateur Julián Fernández EA4HCD was interviewed by the newspaper El Mundo Chronicle about his FossaSat-1 PocketQube satellite.

A Google translation of an extract of the article says:

…at the age of seven someone told him about the International Space Station and, since then, he has not stopped fantasizing about the idea of a voyage safe from gravity. “Unlike the children of previous generations who dreamed of being astronauts without knowing very well how to get it, I have grown up with all the information at my fingertips,” he tells Crónica.”

Now Julián Fernández [EA4HCD], already as CEO of Fossa Systems, has just launched a crowdfunding campaign through GoFundMe with which he intends to finance his latest talent: a mini-satellite (the smallest in Spain and the third in the world) that will allow the Internet access throughout the world. “It is not designed to provide Wi-Fi hotspots,” jokes this student of 4th of ESO, “but to try to democratize access to telecommunications in the environment of the internet of things.” To meet its objective, and in order to reduce launch costs, the last two years have been devoted to miniaturizing the size of the satellite. “My prototype will take the internet to rural areas, many of them without coverage of any kind, so that monitoring data can be sent at no cost”.

Read the English version of the full article at https://tinyurl.com/El-Mundo-FossaSat-1

The Fossa team is made up of international members from all over the world working together thanks to the magic of the internet https://fossa.systems/about-us/

The IARU have coordinated a frequency of 436.700 MHz for the 100 mW downlink which is capable of 183 Hz Shift FSK RTTY 45 baud ITA2 and LoRa 125 kHz B/W 180 bps, details at
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=652

The ITU API/A is available here.

Fossa say they have signed a orbital launch contract with UK company Alba Orbital and a launch on a Electron rocket is expected in the 4th quarter of 2019
https://fossa.systems/fossasat/
https://twitter.com/FossaSys

Jan 14 2013

Alba Orbital make Shell top 10

CubeSat_ModelGlasgow based Alba Orbital, who aim to use CubeSats for Space Burials, have got through to the national round of a major start-up competition.

They now need your help to go one better and win £1000 for their Space Start-up.

There is a 1 minute elevator pitch video on the Shell Livewire site describes their plans for the company.

You can vote for Alba Orbital at http://www.shell-livewire.org/awards/grand-ideas-awards

Alba Orbital believe Space is important and more start-up satellite companies should be succeeding!

Thanks for your support,

Tom Walkinshaw
Founder, Alba Orbital

Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards http://www.shell-livewire.org/awards/grand-ideas-awards

BBC Radio Scotland interview with Tom Walkinshaw of Alba Orbital
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft6i_7FSdko

Alba Orbital use the MAKlab Studio in Glasgow, for manufacturing their prototype satellites http://www.maklab.co.uk/

Alba Orbital http://www.albaorbital.com/