Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to manually launch an amateur radio experiment satellite during the upcoming EVA on the International Space Station on 3 August 2011. The ARISSat-1/KEDR satellite is primarily intended to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics education around the world. The satellite will transmit 24 greetings in 15 languages, and one of the greetings is a recording of Yuri Gagarin communicating with a ground control station during the first manned spaceflight fifty years ago.
Reception of the 145.950 MHz FM downlink should be possible using very modest equipment such as a hand-held or desktop VHF scanner with a built-in or rubber-ducky antenna. Better equipment will yield better quality results. In preparation for the manual launch of the satellite, the satellite will be connected to an antenna on the International Space Station and tested in low power mode on 30-31 July 2011.
Additional information about the satellite is available here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSat.php
http://www.arissat1.org/v3/
The launch of the satellite will be carried live by NASA TV during the course of the EVA:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
If you would like to try to hear the satellite during the low power test or after its launch, then you need to know when the satellite will be overhead. You can use this AMSAT Pass Prediction page to determine when the ISS will be overhead during the low-power test by selecting the ISS in the "Show Predictions for" dropdown box and entering your latitude, longitude and altitude and pressing the "Predict" button:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/
After the satellite is launched, the position of the ISS and ARISSat-1 will diverge over time, so you will need to select ARISSat-1 from the "Show Predictions for" dropdown box (it isn't available yet, but should be some time after launch) if you want to use the AMSAT page above.
As an alternative, you can download and install satellite pass prediction software that uses publicly available NASA/NORAD data referred to as 2-line Keplerian Element sets in order to predict when a particular satellite will be in range. Orbitron is one such Windows program:
http://www.stoff.pl/
Linux and Mac OS X users can use Gpredict:
http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
Other software is available here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/software.php
Reception of the 145.950 MHz FM downlink should be possible using very modest equipment such as a hand-held or desktop VHF scanner with a built-in or rubber-ducky antenna. Better equipment will yield better quality results. In preparation for the manual launch of the satellite, the satellite will be connected to an antenna on the International Space Station and tested in low power mode on 30-31 July 2011.
Additional information about the satellite is available here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSat.php
http://www.arissat1.org/v3/
The launch of the satellite will be carried live by NASA TV during the course of the EVA:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
If you would like to try to hear the satellite during the low power test or after its launch, then you need to know when the satellite will be overhead. You can use this AMSAT Pass Prediction page to determine when the ISS will be overhead during the low-power test by selecting the ISS in the "Show Predictions for" dropdown box and entering your latitude, longitude and altitude and pressing the "Predict" button:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/
After the satellite is launched, the position of the ISS and ARISSat-1 will diverge over time, so you will need to select ARISSat-1 from the "Show Predictions for" dropdown box (it isn't available yet, but should be some time after launch) if you want to use the AMSAT page above.
As an alternative, you can download and install satellite pass prediction software that uses publicly available NASA/NORAD data referred to as 2-line Keplerian Element sets in order to predict when a particular satellite will be in range. Orbitron is one such Windows program:
http://www.stoff.pl/
Linux and Mac OS X users can use Gpredict:
http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/
Other software is available here:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/software.php