Falcon 9 launches Amateur Radio CubeSat

The SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying the Amateur Radio CubeSat CAERUS launched successfully on Wednesday, December 8, also onboard were the Dragon capsule and a US Army nanosat.

Although this launch was into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) the Falcon 9 is capable of carrying payloads into High Earth Orbit (HEO).

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Omair Rahman writes:
CAERUS is University of Southern California's (USC) 1st CubeSat subsystem delivered in May 2010, and was named after the Greek word for "opportunity".
It was developed from authorization to proceed (ATP) to delivery in 14 weeks. CAERUS is part of the "MAYFLOWER" Next Generation Technology CubeSat that is a joint effort with Northrop Grumman NOVAWORKS group.

The satellite would be transmitting beacon data in the Amateur Band, with the following specifications.
Call Sign: KJ6FIX
Downlink Frequency: 437.600 MHz
Beacon Output Power: 900mW
Modulation Type: AFSK, 1200 baud
TLE: Updated on website, right after launch.

It would be greatly appreciated, if you can please collect the beacon data and email the raw text file to caerus@astronautics.usc.edu.
The collection of the data would help USC in tabulating the performance of our first student driven endeavour into space.

For further information and TLE updates, please go to the website
http://www2.isi.edu/research/prj-serc/prj-serc_projects/
prj-serc_projects-9.htm.

The beacon data can also be translated with the jar applet provided on our website.

Thanks for all your help,

Regards,

Omair A. Rahman.

P.S.
- If it's raw beacon data file, please have your email subject: Beacon Data and your info.

- If you have the capability of hooking up a Spectrum Analyzer to the antenna feed, and can measure the 'Actual' frequency of the downlink, please send that too, with the Subject: Beacon Frequency. This is very important to us, for a tracking experiment we are conducting.

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Also on the Falcon 9 launch was a US Army nanosatellite, details at
http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/12/08/
49115-army-nanosatellite-on-first-flight/

SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 2 Launch Webcast

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