UKube-1 ready for launch

UKube-1 carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards providing a 435/145 MHz linear transponder and educational telemetry beacon. Clyde Space have announced that the launch is now confirmed for June 19, 2014 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, where it will be launched on a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket.

The Clyde Space press release says:

UKube-1 is a 3U CubeSat has been designed and manufactured by Clyde Space at their high-tech facility on the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow.  This CubeSat is one of the most advanced of its kind, the complexity of the spacecraft highlighted by the nature of the 6 independent, advanced payloads being flown by the mission.  The UKube-1 mission is the pilot for a collaborative, national CubeSat programme bringing together UK industry and academia to fly educational packages, test new technologies and carry out new space research quickly and efficiently. 

Payloads on UKube-1 include: the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather; a camera that will take images of the Earth, and test the effect of radiation on space hardware, using a new generation of imaging sensor; an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems; an advanced mission interface computer to enable serious number crunching on tiny spacecraft; a high rate S-Band transmitter and patch antenna; an outreach payload that allows school children to interact with the spacecraft.

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

Clyde Space http://www.clyde-space.com/

The January 2014 issue of SatMagazine features the UKube-1 CubeSat built at Clyde Space in Glasgow. UKube-1 carries an amateur radio 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications and should launch later this year.

The magazine also covers some of the many other CubeSats launched recently including Cape-2, KySat-2, ChargerSat-2, Trailblazer, TJ3SAT, DragonSat-1, COPPER and PhoneSat. There is also an article on the upcoming launch of the Planet Labs constellation of twenty eight 3U CubeSats.

Download the January 2014 SatMagazine from http://www.satmagazine.com/2014/SM_Jan2014.pdf

UK CubeSat Forum https://amsat-uk.org/2013/12/19/announcing-the-uk-cubesat-forum/

UKube-1 CubeSat on its way to Kazakhstan – Credit Clyde Space

UKube-1 left Clyde Space in Glasgow on its way to Baikonur in Kazakhstan on December 12, 2013. The 3U CubeSat carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards (FUNcube-2) to provide an Educational beacon and a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for amateur radio SSB/CW communications.

Reports on a space flight forum indicate that the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M which will carry UKube-1 is currently expected to launch on March 27, 2014.

Russian launch schedule thread http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26990.450

Clyde Space on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/clydespace