ExoCube Status Update

ExoCube was launched January 31st 2015 on a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base as a secondary payload.

Since deployment ExoCube has been a little quiet. Unfortunately, the transmit power has been lower than expected. Thankfully there is been great support in the community. SRI has been generous and has allowed us to use their 150′ dish. Members of the Cal Poly team drove to SRI on Sunday (2/8/15) to use the dish for the night and the following morning. We received a significant amount of health and telemetry data from the spacecraft!

The Cal Poly team reviewed the telemetry data and determined that the antenna unfortunately hasn’t deployed. Multiple deploy commands have been sent to the antenna. At some point during shock and vibes testing and the ride up the mechanism broke.

We have been investigating options for long term solutions. The team has investigated ways to still receive important data from the payload with limited data capacity from the satellite. The mission will move on!

Thank you to all the people who have offered their stations to help the mission.

Also thank you Bryan Klofas and Steve Muther for making time in their schedule to operate the SRI dish.