On Orbit: Week One

CSSWE has been beaconing for over a week now!  Friendly radio operators in Norway, Germany, Japan, California, and Michigan have been helping the ground station at LASP in recording the beacons and decoding the data they contain.  We’d like to thank them and remind them that their efforts are greatly appreciated!  Until we enter science operations, the only contact we have with the spacecraft is through the beacons, and the more beacons we receive the better we get to know how the system operates in orbit.  The plot below shows where beacons were decoded using CSSWE’s beacon decoding software, which is available to the public.

After one week in orbit, all systems are operating as expected and we have begun advancing our commissioning plan with the goal to enter science operations as soon as possible.