Hey, Kicksat! I backed the first launch on Kickstarter a few years ago -- it was exciting when they finally launched, and a bit disappointing when it didn't deploy the Sprites.
But it was a super fun opportunity to get involved with with tracking the carrier satellite and decoding telemetry. And with a really inexpensive setup based around a $20 software-defined radio dongle.
As a bit of a followup, I was successful in capturing and decoding a number of its passes over the following weeks. Including what seems to have been the last received signals from it, on 5/13/2014: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/kicksat-gs/U_svX4f2xY8/StfEl... Shortly after that it burned up upon reentering the atmosphere, likely over Africa.
AIUI the Kicksat-2 re-flight is close to launching; the last Kickstarter update said it missed the upcoming (September) OA-5 launch to ISS due to a last-minute issue with a radio license. fingers crossed soon!
But it was a super fun opportunity to get involved with with tracking the carrier satellite and decoding telemetry. And with a really inexpensive setup based around a $20 software-defined radio dongle.
I blogged about here: https://dolske.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/satellite-radio/
As a bit of a followup, I was successful in capturing and decoding a number of its passes over the following weeks. Including what seems to have been the last received signals from it, on 5/13/2014: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/kicksat-gs/U_svX4f2xY8/StfEl... Shortly after that it burned up upon reentering the atmosphere, likely over Africa.
AIUI the Kicksat-2 re-flight is close to launching; the last Kickstarter update said it missed the upcoming (September) OA-5 launch to ISS due to a last-minute issue with a radio license. fingers crossed soon!