New D-Star ONE Nanosatellites Launched; Es’hail Testing Under Way

A December 27 Soyuz launch deployed the two German Orbital Systems D-Star ONE satellites D-Star ONE – Sparrow and D-Star ONE – iSat. Beacons have been successfully received from both satellites, which carry a D-Star repeater with an uplink at 437.325 MHz and downlink at 435.525 MHz. The D-Star ONE – Phoenix 3U CubeSat, launched last February, was lost. This winter’s D-Star mission was to include three D-Star CubeSats. A pair of Kanopus V remote-sensing satellites was the primary payload. The flight carried 28 satellites in all.

“During the first low-elevation pass over Berlin, our team established successful contact with both satellites,” German Orbital Systems said. “The received telemetry confirms nominal status of all systems.”

The December Soyuz flight also deployed the UWE-4 1U CubeSat carrying an electric propulsion experiment and a 70-centimeter 9.6 k AX.25 digipeater, with an uplink/downlink frequency of 437.375 MHz.

Elsewhere, AMSAT-DL (Germany) has reported that in-orbit testing of the P4-A ham radio transponders on Es’hail-2 has begun. AMSAT-DL cautioned that, under no circumstances, should anyone attempt to transmit on the Es’hail-2 uplink.

“Like everyone, we are very excited by the received signals so far, and we do appreciate any monitoring and receiving reports from the Amateur Radio community,” AMSAT-DL. Unsolicited transmissions on the Es’hail-2 uplink not only could delay commissioning and adversely affect relations with satellite owner Es’hailSat.

When all in-orbit testing has been successfully completed, the satellite will be moved to its final orbital position at 26° E.

Source:ARRL

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