ELaNa 41 - Astra Rocket 3.3 - 2022-02-10 22:00 UTC

Satellites & Observations Launches
1

Greetings! I’ve found previous threads around these multi-satellite deployments to be particularly helpful since there can be so much info coming from so many sources in a short period of time. The bottom line is that it’s really nice to get some help selecting WHICH satellites to focus your attention on.

While I don’t believe there is a launch date yet, it sounds like ELaNa-41 might be going up sooner than later. I’ve started trying to gather info on the satellites involved and at least a few looking interesting already.

From: https://www.nasa.gov/content/upcoming-elana-cubesat-launches

ELaNa 41
Mission: Astra Space Inc., VCLS Demo-2
5 CubeSat Missions scheduled to be deployed

  • BAMA-1 - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
  • CURIE - University of California, Berkeley
  • INCA - New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
  • QubeSat - University of California, Berkeley
  • R5-S1 - NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

… as always, any particulars appreciated as info becomes available.

-Scott, K4KDR

5 Likes
2

From a quick look 3 of them are IARU coordinated:

I can not find any info on fcc or itu for the othe two.

2 Likes
3

I’ve emailed the Project Lead for QubeSat asking if they are in fact using OpenLST and if any finalized decoder is available yet. So, I’ll report if there’s any reply.

Found some possibly-related software at → GitHub - space-technologies-at-california/qubesat: Repository for Quantum CubeSat

… but of course I have no idea if any of that is actually being used for this mission.

2 Likes
4

The launch is now scheduled for 2022-01-23 18:00 UTC according to Astra - LV0008 - NASA VCLS Demo-2 - CCSFS SLC-46 - Jan 23 2022 18:00 UTC

2 Likes
5

Still waiting for datetime for this launch:

6
1 Like
8
Satellite Temorary NORAD ID Expected frequency IARU Coordination
BAMA-1 99425 437.460 MHz YES
INCA 99426 437.125 MHz YES
QUBESAT 99427 437.740 MHz YES
R5-S1 99428 None N/A

Pre-launch TLE sets by @cgbsat based on orbit details and calculated for launch at 2022-02-05 18:00 UTC:

BAMA-1
1 99425U          22035.75000000  .00000000  00000-0  50000-4 0    05
2 99425  41.0000 287.0000 0001454   0.0000  30.0000 15.21937999    05
INCA
1 99426U          22035.75000000  .00000000  00000-0  50000-4 0    06
2 99426  41.0000 287.0000 0001454   0.0000  30.0000 15.21937999    06
QubeSat
1 99427U          22035.75000000  .00000000  00000-0  50000-4 0    07
2 99427  41.0000 287.0000 0001454   0.0000  30.0000 15.21937999    07

Due to uncertain launch schedule, TLE will be added ~30min before launch, this is the time that satellites will be available on SatNOGS Network for scheduling.

9

New change on launch time, now it is 19:10 UTC. We have (people in matrix channel) decided to wait for launch before generating new TLE sets and scheduling.

2 Likes
10

For QubeSat, from the AMSAT coordination “2-FSK UHF downlink at 5k5 bps”. Does anyone know if UZ7HO soundmodem can decode this? It seems a strange baudrate at first glance.

11

There is not one currently that I’m aware of, but in recent weeks a number of custom soundmodem variants have been created for new modulations. So, if the satellite proves successful then something might turn up.

2 Likes
12

Launch was postponed for tomorrow.

1 Like
13

New update launch goes for Monday.

14

Aborted for now… not sure yet if it goes for tomorrow.

1 Like
15

Last update from the Astra team:

Launch window Thursday February 10th 20:00 UTC

1 Like
16

Unfortunately the payload haven’t been deployed due to some issues with the second stage. Satellites have been marked as re-entered in DB.