DNEPR Launch a succes

The DNEPR launch was/is a success.

The launch as you can see in this Youtube movie below was a success, the launch took place at 07:10 UTC from the Dombarovskiy facility.

Just a couple of minutes after the launch signals where received from FUNcube-1, these came from Amateur Radio Stations in South Africa and they filled the FUNcube-1 data warehouse for the first time.

My first pass was at 08:46 UTC and I had to make up my mind on with cubesats to track. I finally choose for monitor and record a frequency span between 437.350 – 437.540. In the middle of this span would CubeBUG-2 transmit its data. In meantime listen to Delfi-n3Xt at 145.870. When the pass started it was a overwhelming. Delfi-n3Xt pass coming via the VHF Icom 910H and the 192khz span of the FUNcube Dongle Pro+ showed a lot of signals being received. I wasn’t able to decode any 2400 baud BPSK signal from Delfi-n3Xt but after the pass when I analysed the IQ file that was recorded with SDR# I could decode signals from ZAcube-1, UWE-3 and CubeBUG-2.

The following frames are decoded from a recorded SDR IQ file, therefor the timestamps are of.

ZAcube-1 1k2 decode:

2013-11-21 09:11:07.750 UTC: [47 Bytes KISS Frame (without CRC)]
ctrl: 12   PID: F0 {I06^}   26 Payload Bytes
from 123456 to 012345: 
   1 > DC 0C 16 7A 61 63 75 62 65 30 31 2E 00 00 13 09 2C 0A DC 2C
  21 > 06 7B 2C 0C 2E DC 
Ü..zacube01.....,.Ü,.{,..Ü

UWE-3 9k6 decode:

2013-11-21 14:47:59.380 UTC: [60 Bytes KISS Frame (without CRC)]
ctrl: 3   PID: F0 {UI}   41 Payload Bytes
from DP0UWG to DD0UWE: 
   1 > 00 53 20 64 64 59 B3 21 02 FC 14 6A 13 00 00 18 6A 86 F4 42 
  21 > 59 5E 34 10 07 00 17 58 10 1F 00 17 36 01 F5 FD DE E8 F4 F5 
  41 > DC 
.S ddY³!.ü.j....j†ôBY^4....X....6.õýÞèôõÜ

CubeBUG-2 9k6 decode:

2013-11-21 14:59:10.800 UTC: [98 Bytes KISS Frame (without CRC)]
ctrl: 3   PID: F0 {UI}   78 Payload Bytes
from CUBEB2-6 to CQ: 
   1 > FF FF F0 00 00 14 CA 00 00 01 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 3D E0 00 
  21 > 00 00 00 AF 00 01 00 CA 1E 77 03 F7 02 C9 03 FF 03 FF 02 D9 
  41 > 02 B6 03 FF 03 3F 03 B6 03 C4 0A C7 05 01 C5 AA 19 F8 FB B8 
  61 > 03 DB FD DD FF 65 09 47 02 51 E3 8A FF 6C 00 00 00 00 
ÿÿð...Ê..........=à....¯...Ê.w.÷.É.ÿ.ÿ.Ù.¶.ÿ.?.¶.Ä.Ç..Ū.øû¸.ÛýÝÿe.G.QãŠÿl....

In a later pass also an APRS message from CubeBUG-2:

1:Fm CUBEB2-6 To CQ  [13:34:56R]
:EMAIL :manolito@satellogic.com Upt: 04:41:43 Bat:7.90v Temp:27.6C Gyr:87.77d/s

So far so good, I have 2Gb of IQ data that can be analyzed. This is what I can tell so far, the launch is a success and there are some teams that are still searching for there satellites. Good luck all, I’ll point my antenna’s to the sky when I am able to.

After analyzing the IQ files I also saw the data from Humsat-D, very strong 1200 baud GMSK data and Morse code, modulation type FM. Very difficult to decode the CW data. It is time I learned CW because the Computer isn’t able to decode the data.

Below an image with from left to right: HumSat-D CW, ZAcube 1k2 AFSK and UWE-3 9k6 FSK.

DNEPR SDR 21-11-2013

Upcoming Dnepr launch

DNEPR-1 Lift OffHere some information regarding the upcoming Dnepr launch. At the moment the launch date is set to 21th November 2013. With this launch there will be flying at least two Cubesats with linear transponder functionality. The launch will be done at the Dombarovskiy Launch Site.

At the moment there are some nice blogs that give insides on the flight preparations, one of them is the ISILanch blog from ISIS in The Netherlands. It is nice to see how every thing is going in the cleanroom.

I am trying to keep this list complete and up to date but with this large group of satellites there is always a chance that I made a mistake or missed something. If so, would please inform me via the contact form so I can correct this information.

DNEPR Launch 21 November 2013 – 07:11:29 UTC

Satellite Type Frequency Owner Remarks
DubaiSat-2 Minisatellite Earth observation EIAST PP
STSat-3 SaTReC Korea PP
AprizeSat 7 and 8 Cubesat SpaceQuest Argentina SP
BPA-3 Hartron-Arkos Ukraine SP
BRITE-PL Cubesat Downlink: 437.365 / 2234.4 MHz Uplink: 437.365 Beacon: 145.890 SRC Poland (website) SP
CINEMA 2 and 3 Cubesat KHU Seoul SP
CubeBUG-2 Cubesat Telemetry and Beacons 437.445MHz 1200bps, AFSK / 9600bps FSK, GMSK Argentina (website) SP
Delfi-n3Xt Cubesat Uplink 435.530 – 435.570MHz Downlink 145.880 – 145.920MHz Telemetry and Beacons 145.870/145.930MHz, 2405.000MHz Delft TU Netherlands (website) SP
Dove-3 Cubesat Planet Labs SP
eSt@r-2 Cubesat 437.485MHz, 1200bps AFSK CW Politecnico di Torino Italy SP
First-MOVE Cubesat Uplink: 435.520 MHz Downlink: 145.970 MHz 1k2 BPSK AX25 (website) SP
FUNCube-1 Cubesat Uplink 435.150-435.130MHz (Inverting) Downlink 145.950-145.970MHz Beacon 145.935MHz 1k2 BPSK Amsat-NL (website) SP
GOMX-1 Cubesat 437.250MHz, 1k2/2k4/4k8/9k6 GMSK GomSpace ApS Denmark (website) SP
HinCube Cubesat 437.305MHz GMSK Narvik Norway (website) SP
KHUSAT 01 and 02 Cubesat SP
NEE-02 Cubesat EXA Ecuador (website) SP
OPTOS Cubesat SP
SkySat-1 Microsat Skybox Imaging USA SP
Triton-1 Cubesat Downlink: 145.815 / 145.860 ISIS The Netherlands SP
UniSat-5 Microsat 437.175/437.425MHz, UHF 9600bps GMSK AX.25 Gauss Italy (website) SP
Dove-4 Cubesat Payload from UniSat-5
HUMSAT-D Cubesat 437.325MHz Vigo Spain (website) Payload from UniSat-5
I-Cube-1 Cubesat 145.947MHz IST Pakistan Payload from UniSat-5
PocketPUCP Pocket Cubesat 437.200MHz, 1200bps AFSK Pontifical Peru (website) Payload from PUCPSAT-1
PUCPSAT-1 Cubesat 145.840MHz 1200bps AFSK Beacon 437.200MHz Pontifical Peru (website) Payload from UniSat-5
$50Sat (Eagle-2) Pocket Cubesat 437.505MHz Payload from UniSat-5
BeakerSat (Eagle-1) Pocket Cubesat 437.465MHz Payload from UniSat-5
QBScout Pocket Cubesat 437.525MHz, 9600bps GMSK UMBC USA (website) Payload from UniSat-5
WREN Pocket Cubesat 437.405MHz, 1200bps FSK CW SSTV StaDoKo Germany (website) Payload from UniSat-5
UWE-3 Cubesat Downlink: 437.385MHz, 1200bps FSK CW UW Germany website SP
Velox-P2 Cubesat Downlink: 145.980 1k2 BPSK Singapore SP
WNISat-1 10kg Micro Sat Axelspace Japan (website) SP
ZACube-1 Cubesat Uplink 145.860MHz Downlink 437.345MHz Beacon 14.099MHz F’SATI South Afric (website) SP

ISIpods dnepr launch

ISIPODs containing Triton-1 (left) and HiNcube, FUNcube-1 and ZACUBE-1 (right) Image credit: Gerard Aalbers – FUNcube team.

Update:

FUNcube-1 Launch: Date and time confirmed, The launch date of RS-20B rocket (Dnepr) with a group of satellites (DubaiSat-2 cluster mission) from Dombarovsky missile area (Yasny Launch Base) has been established for November 21, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT. The back-up launch date is November 22, 2013 at 07:10:11 UT.

Zarya information: Dnepr 21 November 2013 launch update

Thanks to some preliminary TLE data I could calculate the following first pass data over The Netherlands and parts of Europe. 21-11-2013 09:47 CEST (UTC+1).

DNepr 21-11-2013 NL