LightSail 2 CubeSat to Transmit Morse

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The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 CubeSat, launched on the 25 June 2019, will transmit Morse code from space.

LightSail is a citizen-funded project and the satellite is due to be deployed on the 2 July 2019.

Once deployed, LightSail 2 will automatically transmit a beacon packet every few seconds, which can be decoded into 238 lines of text telemetry describing the spacecraft’s health and status, including everything from battery status to solar sail deployment motor state.

Every 45 seconds, the spacecraft will transmit ‘LS2’ on the spacecraft’s frequency of 437.025MHz.

More Information - http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/

Amateur Ham Radio Satellites to Deploy from ISS

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Three BIRDS-3 satellites with amateur radio payloads will be deployed from the International Space Station during the morning of 17th June 2019

The BIRDS-3 1U CubeSat satellites are NepaliSat-1 (Nepal), Raavana-1 (Sri Lanka) and Uguisu (Japan).

The three satellites operate on the same frequency - 437.375 MHz CW beacon and 4800bps GMSK

Watch the live streaming of the deployment starting at 0835 GMT 17th June 2019 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrw3cMw10nQ

BIRDS-3 Project site - https://birds3.birds-project.com/

Australian CubeSat to use 76 GHz

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Australian CubeSat to use 76 GHz

The IARU Satellite Coordination Panel has announced the amateur radio frequencies for the Australian 76 GHz CubeSat CUAVA-1 that is expected to launch in July 2019

CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat and the first CubeSat project of the new ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and their Applications (CUAVA), whose primary aim is the education and training of people, mostly PhD students, for the space sector.

With significant heritage from the QB50 CubeSat INSPIRE-2, CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat that will link with the international radio amateur community for outreach, training, and increased data downloads, observe the Earth with a novel multi-spectral imager, use a GPS instrument to explore radio occultation and the reception of GPS signals scattered off the Earth as well as provide a backup determination of the CubeSat location, investigate plasma environment and associated space weather with radiation detectors, and explore the performance of a new communications payload.

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