EETimes reports:

ARISSat-1, the satellite designed and built by amateur radio operators to specifically interest students in scientific and technological careers, is scheduled to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) this Wednesday August 3.

The extra-vehicular activity (EVA)  is due to be broadcast on NASA TV, starting at 1430  UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)  when the hatch of the ISS will open.

Read the complete story.

This from Allen Pitts, W1AGP, ARRL Media & PR Manager, via the PR mailling list:

It was quite an exciting day for ARISS yesterday with the Expedition 18 crew docking and the start up of Richard Garriott’s ham radio activities. Here are some updates and plans for ARISS during Richard’s flight.

Richard, W5KWQ, fired up the radio and started SSTV operations just a couple of hours after docking. Richard planned to support a slide show mode using the SpaceCam software and the SSTV interface box at the beginning of his flight, which is what you saw yesterday. A number of the images were sent down using Martin 1, a higher quality but longer transmit SSTV mode. The Russian team, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, had requested testing several high quality image modes during Richard’s flight, so don’t be surprised if you see Martin 1 or other high resolution SSTV modes during Richard’s flight. We have asked Richard to move to the default Robot 36 mode for the time being and to space out the images once every 3 minutes to reduce the radio transmit duty cycle. Richard confirmed that he will support this. He also has transitioned to the VC-H1 as this will allow Richard to use the computer to support his Earth ops and still support SSTV.

We have had a number of image uploads on the Gallery site by hams all around the world. The ARISS team appreciates your volunteer support through all the SSTV images that have been uploaded. A volunteer ARISS team is working 24/7 during Richard’s flight to review these images, to understand how the SSTV operations is progressing, and to include some of these images on the Gallery pages. ALL the images you have uploaded have been archived and are being reviewed. Please continue to upload these images as they help the ARISS team analyze and redirect the SSTV operations. You are welome to upload these to the gallery page.

We also have a blog available that provides the latest ARISS information for this expedition.

You can also reach these sites through the ARISS website.

Some other information:

• SSTV uplink/downlink: Richard is really not supporting SSTV uplinks during his short duration mission. The downlink is on the normal ARISS VHF downlink, 145.800.
• General Voice Contacts: Use the regular general voice frequencies. 145.80 downlink. Uplinks are 144.49 in Region 2 (Americas) and 145.20 for Region 1 (Europe, Africa, Middle East) and Region 3 (Australia, Asia). Richard and Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, have been on the air on voice since shortly after docking yesterday.
• Sleep Period Activity: We have asked the crew to turn packet on during sleep periods. Our intent is to keep SSTV active during their work day. The rationale for this is that we are having some issues with the software based (SpaceCam) SSTV system occasionally keeping the radio keyed down after an image transmission. And we have a limited set of Russian batteries available during Richard’s flight for the VC-H1.

You are witnessing and are a part of history: Some of you have asked why Richard is using his callsign for some QSOs and SSTV contacts instead of the ISS station callsigns. There is a long and proud history that is attached to the Garriotts. This includes ham radio in space and their personal callsigns. 25 years ago, Richard’s father, Owen Garriott, W5LFL, initiated the first ham radio contacts from space on the STS-9 SAREX mission. Richard, W5KWQ, is following in his father’s footsteps, using the ARISS ham radio system extensively on his first flight. And Richard’s callsign is actually his grandfather’s original callsign. So you can see that this mission touches 3 generations of ham radio and 2 generations of ham radio in space!

EE Times has just published a very cool article with some history on SuitSat 1 and some design info on SuitSat 2. Unfortunately, they don’t give a date for the launch of the second SuitSat.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The experience proved so interesting that the engineers enthusiastically signed up for SuitSat-2. Leveraging their acquired knowledge, the team has already developed a new solar-conversion technique for the follow-on satellite that will extend system life to months instead of weeks. They have also crafted a software-defined, full-duplex radio with a better antenna for two-way communication and more-refined control.

For more information, go to the SuitSat website, which has links to a couple of ARRL articles on SuitSat 2.

I’m not big on working satellites, but this is kind of cool…..Dan

ZCZC AS04
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 004 ARLS004
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT April 28, 2008
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS004
ARLS004 Ten New Satellites in Orbit

Ten satellites reached orbit April 28 aboard an Indian PSLV-C9
rocket launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center. The primary
payloads were India’s CARTOSAT-2A and IMS-1 satellites. In addition
to the NLS-5 and RUBIN-8 satellites, the rocket carried six CubeSat
research satellites, all of which communicate using Amateur Radio
frequencies. All spacecraft deployed normally and appear to be
functional at this time.

The SEEDS satellite is designed and built by students at Japan’s
Nihon University. When fully operational, SEEDS will download
telemetry in Morse code and 1200-baud FM AFSK packet radio at
437.485 MHz. The satellite also has Slow-Scan TV (SSTV) capability.
Several stations have reported receiving SEEDS CW telemetry and the
team would appreciate receiving more reports from amateurs at their
ground station Web page.

AAUSAT-II is the creation of a student team at Aalborg University in
Denmark. It will downlink scientific telemetry at 437.425 MHz using
1200 or 9600-baud packet.

Can-X2 is a product of students at the University of Toronto
Institute for Aerospace Studies, Space Flight Laboratory
(UTIAS/SFL). Can-X2 will downlink telemetry at 437.478 MHz using 4
kbps GFSK, but the downlink will be active only when the satellite
is within range of the Toronto ground station.

Compass-One was designed and built by students at Aachen University
of Applied Sciences in Germany. The satellite features a Morse code
telemetry beacon at 437.275 MHz. Compass-1 will also provide a
packet radio data downlink, which will include image data, at
437.405 MHz.

Cute 1.7 + APDII is a satellite created by students at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology. This satellite will not only provide
telemetry, it will also offer a 9600-baud packet store-and-forward
message relay with an uplink at 1267.6 MHz and a downlink at 437.475
MHz.

Delfi-C3 was designed and built by students at Delft University of
Technology in the Netherlands. It includes an SSB/CW linear
transponder. The satellite will be in telemetry-only mode for the
first three months of the mission, after which it will be switched
to transponder mode. Delfi-C3 downlinks 1200-baud packet telemetry
at 145.870 MHz. The linear transponder, when activated, will have an
uplink passband from 435.530 to 435.570 MHz and a corresponding
downlink passband from 145.880 to 145.920 MHz.
NNNN
/EX