SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS003
ARLS003 CAPE-3 CubeSat Launched

ZCZC AS03  
QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 003  ARLS003
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  February 16, 2021
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS003
ARLS003 CAPE-3 CubeSat Launched

The University of Louisiana (UL) at Lafayette student-built CAPE-3
satellite was launched on January 17. A 1-U CubeSat, CAPE-3 includes
a "digipeater and experimental UHF adaptive radio." An AX-25
telemetry downlink has been coordinated on 145.825 MHz and a 1k2
frequency-shift keying (FSK) downlink has been coordinated on
435.325 MHz, "which may burst to 100 kHz bandwidth," according to
the IARU Amateur Satellite Coordination page.

CAPE-3 is the third cube satellite in the CAPE series. The primary
educational mission is to allow grade-school classrooms to access
the Smartphone CubeSat Classroom, and run interactive experiments
through an experimental smartphone ground-station grid.

The secondary mission is to perform scientific experiments involving
radiation detection and take pictures of Earth.

The solar-powered spacecraft, created by UL Lafayette's CAPE
Satellite Team, was launched with nine other CubeSats as part of
NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. A
Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket attached beneath a wing of a
customized Boeing 747 was dropped high above the Pacific Ocean. It
climbed about 225 miles above Earth and then ejected the satellite.

Information on the ElaNa program can be found in PDF format at,
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/lsp_elana_20_fact_sheet.pdf
.

The CAPE satellites are named for the university's Cajun Advanced
Picosatellite Experiment program, designed to prepare students for
careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
fields.
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