Just an update on Kentucky Space's free flyer. The software for KySat-1 is being finalized today in preparation for integrating the satellite over the weekend. On Wednesday morning, Kentucky Space will take it to CalPoly for vibration testing, which will happen over a Thursday and Friday before the cube returns the following Monday.

The vibration test will verify that the satellite will be able to survive the launch environment

It's been a busy time as we target a mission readiness review date of July 13 and final delivery, scheduled for July 15.

KySat-1 is currently scheduled to launch with the NASA Glory Mission on November 22.

Wayne

NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who will go to the ISS on Expedition 24, has trained on - and will soon permanently install - the two NanoRacks Platforms that arrived by shuttle in April and May. They will be located it the Japanese module on the ISS.

Kentucky Space is currently working with customers needing to do low cost, repeatable microgravity research using small plug-and-play labs called "CubeLabs." Each NanoRacks Platform can host up to 16 individual labs.

In this photo, the crew of Soyuz TMA-19 poses in Red Square before heading back to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to make final preparations for the June 14 launch. Walker is standing third from the left.

NASA recently also posted an interview with her, in which she talks about her background and path to the astronaut corps, and the duties she will carry out aboard the space station during her six month stay.

Wayne

Photo credit: NASA/Stephanie Stoll

Alan Boyle at MSNBC posts a story about the launch of Falcon 9, which achieved orbit Friday in an historic flight that delivered a mock up of SpaceX's "Dragon" capsule to orbit. A private sector replacement for the Shuttle, it could be taking cargo to the ISS in a year, and humans, perhaps, in three.

Video of the launch may be seen here.

Wayne

Image credit: SpaceX

It's been a while since my last KySat-1 update and a lot has been going on. There have been some redesigns, software changes, document writing and testing preparations. My last update had us redesigning a board to make our Electrical Power System play nicely with the rest of the satellite. This redesign was of our solar panels and it increased the number of cells we have on KySat-1 from 86 to 110, almost a 28 percent increase! One of the important things this redesign does is allow us to keep our high-powered radio while still maintaining a positive power budget, which means, theoretically, we should never turn off because our batteries are too low.

The software changes were minor but important. The main change was a timing problem we had during initial deployment, which caused the satellite to take way too many pictures. It would have been a nightmare to get them from the satellite to us on earth. But all that is fixed and we should get some very nice pictures at startup including, hopefully, one showing the other CubeSats that will be flying with us, from University of Colorado, Boulder and Montana State University.

Finally, the flurry of document writing and test preparations means that the journey of KySat-1 is about reach a very important milestone: delivery to our launch integrator, California Polytechnic University. Delivery is scheduled for July 13 and will include turning over the satellite, giving a Mission Readiness Review presentation, and handing in a stack of documentation showing that we won't be a danger to the primary mission or the other CubeSats. KySat-1 is currently scheduled to launch with the NASA Glory Mission on November 22.

It has been a long road but the end is near and it's approaching ever faster. Stay tuned for more updates.

Daniel Erb

Graduate student, University of Kentucky

Kentucky Space