[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: CubeSats Launched Today

[Alex Karman]

 Look for them on n2yo.com and heavens-above.com



From: alexkarman at hotmail.com
To: alexkarman at hotmail.com
Subject: CubeSats Launched Today
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:31:17 -0400





 
 

Delta 2 rocket launch carries hitch-hikers

Friday morning, at 2:48am, a Delta 2 rocket was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying a payload for the National Polar-orbiting Operations Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP).

In addition to the NPP payload, the Delta 2 rocket carried some hitch-hikers into orbit. Five nano satellites or CubeSats, designed and constructed by students from the University of Michigan, Auburn Univeristy, Montana State University and Utah State University were also placed in orbits. This launch is the third for NASA’s Educational Launch program.

The cubesats can be monitored by ham radio operators as they pass overhead once in orbit. The ELaNa III Cubesats being launched are listed below:

Satellite: AubieSat-1 (Auburn  University)
Downlink Freq: 437.475 MHz
EIRP: .708W
Modulation Scheme: Interrupted Continuous Wave (IWC)
Protocol: Morse Code
Baud Rate: 20wpm

Satellite: DICE (Montana State University)
Downlink Freq: 465 MHz
EIRP: -4.51dBW
Modulation Scheme: OQPSK
Protocol: CCSDS
Baud Rate: Modulation data rate 1.5 megabit, Actual Tx bit rate 3.0 megabit

Satellite: RAX-2 (University  of Michigan)
Downlink Freq: 437.345 MHz
Modulation Scheme: GMSK
Baud Rate: 9600

Satellite: M-Cubed (1) (University  of Michigan)
Downlink Freq: 437.485MHz
EIRP: < 1W
Modulation Scheme: FSK
Protocol: AX.25
Baud Rate: 9600

Satellite: Explorer-1[PRIME] Flight Unit 2 (Utah  State University)
Downlink Freq: 437.505 MHz
EIRP: -0.7dBW
Modulation Scheme: Non-Coherent FSK
Protocol: KISS Custom
Baud Rate: 1200


For additional information about NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit http://go.nasa.gov/CubeSat_initiative

For additional information about the CubeSats, visit:
AubieSat-1: http://space.auburn.edu/
DICE: http://www.sdl.usu.edu/programs/dice
Explorer-1 [Prime]: http://www.ssel.montana.edu/explorer-1_prime/
M-Cubed/COVE: http://umcubed.org/
RAX: http://rax.engin.umich.edu/