Yet more FUNcube satellites!

Folks

Although the FUNcube Dongle is capable of receiving many different types of signals, both from terra firma and from space, it was originally designed to receive the FUNcube-1 satellite launched back in November 2013.

What we weren’t expecting when we first embarked on the FUNcube project was that we’d have any more than just the one satellite. Well, we now have three FUNcube satellite payloads in orbit. As well as FUNcube-1, we now have both FUNcube-2 and FUNcube-3 in space.

Although FUNcube-1 is a satellite in its own right, FUNcube-2 hitched a ride on-board the UK Space Agency’s UKube-1 satellite as a payload and was launched on Tuesday (8 July 2014), and already signals have been received. There’s some more news here. The FUNcube-2 payload carries similar capabilities to FUNcube-1, as well as the other payloads carried by UKube.

Here are some videos of UKube’s integration, Soyuz roll-out and launch.

FUNcube-3 is a satellite in its own right, and was launched on 19 June 2014 from Yasny on a DNEPR rocket, and was heard in South Africa ten minutes after deployment and has a BPSK telemetry downlink as well as a linear transponder. There’s more information here.

Many thanks, Howard