Could you be the first one to catch a signal from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) brand new experimental satellite?
On December 17, the space agency will be launching a new cubesat, called the OPS-SAT, on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will launch with ESA’s Cheops exoplanet-tracker. When it reaches space, the cubesat will deploy its solar panels and ultra-high frequency antenna, and will then begin to send signals back home to Earth.
It is then that radio amateurs will have an opportunity to catch the first signals from this small satellite and find it out in the cosmos, per a request from ESA’s mission control team in Darmstadt, Germany.
Now, not only is ESA inviting radio amateurs to get involved with OPS-SAT, the agency has also opened up the opportunity for anyone to apply to become an "experimenter." If you want to utilize OPS-SAT, you can apply and learn more here.
Find out more about the satellite over at Space.com.
(Image Credit: ESA)
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