Three new CubeSats now in orbit

Soyuz VS14 mission patchSignals have been received from the three CubeSats launched April 25 on Soyuz flight VS14 from the Kourou spaceport in South America.

The three CubeSats were developed by student teams under the European Space Agency (ESA) Education Office “Fly Your Satellite!” program, which is aimed at training the next generation of aerospace professionals. The satellites are OUFTI-1, Université of Liège, Belgium; e-st@r-II, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy; AAUSAT-4, University of Aalborg, Denmark.

The signal from the e-st@r satellite 1200 bps beacon is very weak which may indicate an antenna deployment issue or unexpectedly low transmit power. ESA report the e-st@r team is working to consolidate the radio communication link with their satellite.

OUFTI-1 carries the first dedicated amateur D-Star satellite transponder, further information and frequencies of all three CubeSats are at
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/04/05/d-star-satellite-to-launch-from-kourou/

Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ used a FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and a handheld Arrow Satellite antenna to receive a signal from AAUSAT-4, call sign OZ4CUB.
http://destevez.net/2016/04/first-signals-from-aausat-4/

OUFTI-1 reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=321

e-st@r reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=84

AAUSAT-4 reports http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?cat=8

Read the ARRL story at
http://www.arrl.org/news/three-esa-fly-your-satellite-program-cubesats-now-in-orbit

ESA Fly Your satellite! CubeSats phoned home
http://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/Fly_Your_Satellite!_CubeSats_phoned_home

ESA announce competition for radio hams

Soyuz VS14 mission patchThe European Space Agency (ESA) Education Office will give a prize to the first three radio amateurs to send a recorded signal from either the AAUSAT4, E-st@r-II or OUFTI-1 CubeSats which are expected to launch Monday, April 25 at 2102 UT.

The launch of the three CubeSats on a Russian Soyuz-STA Fregat-M rocket from Kourou in South America had been planned for Friday but suffered a series of postponements due to bad weather.

Watch the launch live at http://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/Watch_live_Fly_Your_Satellite!_CubeSats_and_Sentinel-1B_launch

Soon after being deployed into their final orbit, the CubeSats will begin transmitting signals to Earth that can be picked up by anyone with common amateur radio equipment. ESA challenges anyone to record the signal and send it to cubesats@esa.int, and to the CubeSat team.

For each CubeSat, the first email received for which the signal is confirmed to belong to the CubeSat will be awarded with the following prizes:
• ESA Fly Your Satellite! poster
• ESA Education goodie bag
• Scale 1:1 3D printed model of a CubeSat

Full details and frequency information are available at
http://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/Be_the_first_to_catch_a_signal_from_Fly_Your_Satellite!_from_space

D-STAR satellite to launch from Kourou
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/04/05/d-star-satellite-to-launch-from-kourou/

OUFTI-1 Telemetry Decoder App

Jacques_Verly_ON9CWD_and_Amandine_Denis_ON4EYA_with OUFTI-1

Professor Jacques Verly ON9CWD (Montefiore Institute) and Amandine Denis ON4EYA, Head of Project OUFTI (LTAS) with the flight model (structure) of OUFTI-1 – Image credit ESA

The OUFTI-1 D-STAR CubeSat team have released the format of the CW telemetry beacon and a Decoder App. The launch, on a Russian Soyuz-STA Fregat-M from Kourou in South America, is expected to take place at 21:02:13 UT on Saturday, April 23, 2016.

OUFTI-1 is a nano-satellite entirely developed by the students of the University of Liege (ULg), Belgium, along with two other engineering schools. It is the first satellite to carry a dedicated amateur radio D-STAR transponder.

OUFTI-1 amateur radio information including Keps http://events.ulg.ac.be/oufti-1/radioamateurs/

The PDF of the article ‘D-STAR digital amateur communications in space with OUFTI-1 CubeSat’ by Jonathan Pisane ON7JPD, Amandine Denis ON4EYA and Jacques Verly ON9CWD can be downloaded from
https://amsat-uk.org/2016/04/05/d-star-satellite-to-launch-from-kourou/

IARU coordinated frequencies for all CubeSats on the Russian Soyuz launch
http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/
OUFTI-1 – 145.950 MHz FSK AX25 and D-STAR (uplink 435.045 MHz) – CW beacon 145.980 MHz
e-st@r-II – 437.485 MHz CW and 1k2 AFSK
AAUSAT-4 – 437.425 MHz