Totally Absurd -- Farhan Being Questioned in a Police Station

I walked into the shack this morning hoping to read good news about the InSight landing and the impending launch of Farhan's satellite, but instead I found this message from Farhan in a police station.   This is really absurd and disheartening.   Someone (not Farhan!) altered the Indian flag and put it into an image of Farhan's CubeSat.  So with 24 hours to go before the launch, our friend Farhan finds himself in a police station. 

Stay strong Farhan!  You have a lot of support around the world.  

Bad Weather Postpones Falcon 9 Rocket Launch

March 30 2018 Falcon 9 Launch from Vandenberg AFB

https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/spacex-launch-from-vandenberg-air-force-base-postponed-again-this/article_6a46fade-20fd-5e3b-8546-409f3d25cb47.html

Falcon 9 Cubesat Launch Now Set for Wednesday

It looks like the Falcon 9 with Farhan's CubeSat is not scheduled to launch this Wednesday between 1030 and 1100 West Coast time.  Above you can see a similar launch.  

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article222135690.html

Where in Space is Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster? -- Interactive Animation

Fun stuff from Heavens Above.  What a great web site! 

https://www.heavens-above.com/Tesla.aspx

The Max Valier Satellite Flies Over, Sending CW

I understand the launch of Farhan's CubeSat has been delayed a few days.  That's the way it works in the rocket launch biz --patience is required.  In the meantime, I've been practicing with my receive system.  Today at 1000 local the Max Valier satellite flew to my west.  It rose 78 degrees above my horizon to the W NW.  I left my three element quad pointed in that direction and waited for the satellite (which had been launched from India) to fly through its pattern.  

The CW beacon was quite strong, very visible and audible through my RTL-SDR dongle and HD-SDR software.  You can see it and hear it in the video above.  There is something quite charming about this very personal Morse message coming down from orbit and then passing through all that digital technology.   

More info on the satellite: 

"Max Valier Sat" is an amateur satellite built in cooperation by:

• "Max Valier" High School in Bolzano/Bozen (Italy)
• OHB System AG from Bremen (Germany)
• Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics from Garching (Germany)

Its main payload is an X-Ray telescope devised and made by MPE. Data generated by this detector will be transmitted, together with housekeeping data, over an amateur radio link with frequency 145.860 MHz.

A second payload is an amateur radio beacon transmitting a message in Continuous Wave. The beacon's frequency is 145.960 MHz

"Max Valier Satellite" was launched by the Indian Rocket PSLV-C38 on June 23, 2017 at 9:29 am IST (05:59 am CET) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

More tech details: 

http://spaceflight101.com/pslv-c38/max-valier-sat/

https://www.ohb-system.de/press-releases-details/max-valier-nano-satellite-successfully-launched.html

Regarding the CW beacon: 

Beacon by Holger Eckardt DF2FQ:

• Transmit frequency is 145,960 MHz (IARU and ITU coordinated).
• Modulation is CW:
• Duration of one dot is 114 ms.
• Duration of one dash is 342 ms.
• Interval between words is 1881 ms.
• Interval between repetitions of the message is 6000 ms.
• The beacon transmits Max Valier Sat's call sign and a greeting message.
• Transmitting power is 500 mW.

And who was Max Valier?  Quite an interesting fellow: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Valier

Max Valier in his Rocket Car in 1930

From BITX to SpaceX: Falcon 9 To Launch Farhan's Cubesat on Monday (video)

1. https://www.rocketlaunch.live/launch/spaceflight-sso-a-su
   
   will carry a live feed of the launch
2. 
   
   SpaceX will live-stream the launch as well on their YouTube stream. Also - this will be the first SpaceX booster to fly three times, and the first to launch from all three SpaceX pads.
   
   https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=46756.0
   
3. https://www.deccanherald.com/state/india-s-first-home-grown-703343.html

Special thanks to Dave Bamford for the BITX to SpaceX line! 

Launch Date Approaches for Farhan's Satellite

It looks like the launch date might have been moved up from 24 November to 19 November.