SSETI Express – Latest news from the launch Site – 22nd October 2005

The launch campaign team returned to Plesetsk on Thursday and unpacked SSETI Express from the transport container where it had been resting for past three weeks or so.

The ISC (integrated system check) was completed satisfactorily within a couple of hours of powering up the OBC. All the systems are ok and the propulsion tank has maintained the required 300 bar pressure that it was
charged to before we left last month. Both UHF and S band radios were also tested – including the transponder and DTMF telemetry configurations.

The current plans are for final battery charging to be performed today and tomorrow. We will then remove ALL of the red RBF (remove before flight) tags and then SSETI Express will be completely ready to join the other four
satellites on the launch adaptor on Monday. The launch adaptor will itself then be integrated onto the rocket.

Roll out of the complete launch vehicle at the launch complex (approx 40 kilometres away from the assembly facility) is scheduled for very early on Wednesday morning and its erection to the vertical position will take place
around midday. Then we will only have to pack up all the test gear and other equipment for its return to ESA ESTEC’s facility in the Netherlands and sit patiently waiting for the launch to take place the following day!

A daily report of the launch campaign is being maintained at
http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/express/mop/index.php?uri=news.html
and this mission operations site is completely up-to-date regarding Kepler TLEs and other LEOP “Launch and Early Operations Phase” details.

The SERACC software, needed to decode and submit the received data to the SSETI database, will be released in a few hours time together with some audio files containing recorded 9k6 signals to experiment with. We will put up a brief announcement on AMSAT-BB when this software is available!

There will be two SSETI Express competitions for radio amateurs. The unique “I heard it first” T shirt award and the prize for amateur who submits the largest amount of valid telemetry and payload data to the SSETI Express database before 1st February 2006. This prize, sponsored by ESA, is rather more valuable than just a T shirt – see the full details at
http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/express/mop/index.php?uri=ham_contest.html

So all the signs are good at this moment - although we need to remember that this is real rocket science and also that it is a student project!

Please keep those fingers crossed for us.

Thanks & 73

Graham
UA/G3VZV – Plesetsk

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