QRZ Callsign Search Page last updated on: Wednesday, May 20, 2015 LightSail-1 and PSK31 CubeSats launched At 1504 UT on Wednesday, May 20 the first of The Planetary Society’s two LightSail spacecraft blasted off into space aboard an Atlas V rocket with the X-37B space shuttle. Deployment of LightSail took place at 1705 UT



The mission is a shakedown cruise designed to test out the LightSail’s critical systems.



There were ten CubeSats including LightSail-1 in the UltraSat Deployer onboard the Atlas V, among them were CubeSats carrying amateur radio PSK31 transponders for multi-user PSK31 text messaging as well as APRS.



LightSail-1 has a 9600 bps FSK AX.25 Packet Radio downlink on 437.435 MHz. The Planetary Society’s Jason Davis asks radio amateurs to help by emailing him any data they collect from LightSail, including screenshots of the radio signal if you have them. He'll pass the information on to the engineering team, and your contribution will be recognized on the blog. The contact address is at http://www.planetary.org/about/staff/jason-davis.html



In 2016, the second LightSail spacecraft will piggyback into orbit aboard the first operational flight of SpaceX’s new Falcon Heavy rocket for a full-fledged solar sailing demonstration.



Further information on the CubeSats launched can be seen at

http://www.spaceflight101.com/afspc-05-secondary-payloads.html



PSK31 and APRS CubeSats

http://www.arrl.org/news/view/us-naval-academy-cubesat-launch-to-include-next-aprs-satellite



AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk.org/

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