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Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

First Beacons Received!

September 14, 2012

Three hours after lift-off, CSSWE was successfully deployed from it’s PPOD and it left the rocket fairing behind, becoming a satellite all by itself.  Two hours later, the fishing line keeping the antenna coiled was burned through, the antenna deployed, and CSSWE started beaconing.  Amateur radio operators heard the beacon over Europe, and other places around the world, late last night, but it wasn’t until 4:14am that the CubeSat flew over our ground station at LASP and we were able to hear the beacons ourselves.

 

The beacons ensure us that everything on the CubeSat looks good!  Telemetry, voltages, and temperatures are all nominal.  If you’re interested, the data below is from the very first beacon we received.  Keep checking back for updates as we acquire more data!

 

 

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Comments

  1. Quintin
    September 14, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    I can’t believe it actually works!

  2. Drew
    September 14, 2012 at 5:23 pm

    Amazing job everyone! Congratulations CSSWE team!!!

  3. Miranda
    September 17, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    I had the same thought Quintin 😉 This is an amazing achievement. Congrats to everyone! This is exciting!!

  4. Martin
    September 17, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    The solar cells are charging the spacecraft. I am quite excited about that! Congratulations to everyone. We did great!