Kicksat Updates

We’ve swapped our old crystal oscillator for a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO), which will give the Sprites’ radios better frequency stability over wide temperature ranges. We’ve also added a hole and two pins to the board for interfacing with the deployer.
I’d also like to keep everyone updated with our launch schedule. CRS-3 (the mission we’re riding on) is now scheduled to launch on or around November 11th. That means we have to deliver KickSat in it’s final flight-re ady form in mid August. For everyone with developer kits, I’ll need your code by early July. I’ll be in touch with all of our Sprite developers as we get closer to the due date, but please keep the launch schedule in mind.

These are exciting times for KickSat. With only six months left until launch, we’re nearing the final push to get everything built and tested for flight. I’ll keep you updated with pictures and videos of our progress in the next few months. Thanks again for all of your support! – Zachary Manchester

Upate from Glasgow Photographic Studios

The GPS KickSat Sprite satellite is due to be launched from Florida on 11 November on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will be a subsidiary payload aboard the NASA-funded CRS-3 Dragon supply flight to the ISS (the swarm of KickSat Sprites will be ejected before the Dragon arrives at the ISS, and won’t orbit for more than a few weeks before atmospheric drags causes it to drop out of LEO so will create no significant space junk hazard).

The GPS Sprite will transmit ‘ G P S ‘ in Morse Code on an amateur radio band, making it possibly the world’s first satellite purely for advertising purposes, being owned by Glasgow Photographic Studios, hence GPS! It’s certainly the first Scottish-owned satellite, and the first wholly commercial Scottish Satellite. Nice to be in the lead!

The GPS KickSat is far from unique, as there are a couple of hundred being launched at once – but it’s certainly a fun bit of spaceflight history (and was very inexpensive – just a couple of hundred US Dollars). The whole project has been ‘crowdfunded’ on KickStarter – see the project page at:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space

Glasgow Photographic Studios is a Glasgow-based photographic business specialising in industrial photography.

Next stop, the Moon! Bob Shaw

G  P  S                                                 
Glasgow Photographic Studios Ltd
Unit 8, 100 Elderpark Street             
Govan, Glasgow G51 3TR  

glasgowphotographicstudios.com