ISS Amateur Radio CubeSat Deployment Postponed

Kibo Robot Arm CubeSat Deployment

JAXA have announced that the deployment of five CubeSats from the International Space Station (ISS) planned for September 10 has been postponed due to an additional EVA taking place September 5. A new deployment date has not yet been announced.

Four of the CubeSats carry Amateur Radio payloads, they are F-1, FITSAT-1, WE-WISH and TechEdSat.

The small satellites, just 10cm cubed, were transported to the ISS in the HTV-3 cargo vessel that blasted off on an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on Saturday, July 21 at 02:06 UT.

They arrived at the ISS on July 27 and were unloaded by the Expedition 32 crew.

The CubeSats are mounted in a JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD).  In one pod are FITSAT-1, TechEdSat and F-1 and in the second pod is WeWish and a scientific 2U CubeSat RAIKO. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI will use the ISS Kibo robot arm to deploy the pods as demonstrated in this video.

Watch the planned deployment of the CubeSats from the ISS

Read More

(Source : AMSAT-UK)