07/31/2017

According to Scientific American, six tiny "Sprite" satellites, each consisting of a 4-gram circuit board but packed with electronics, were deployed in late June. The Sprites are the brainchild of Zac Manchester, KD2BHC, whom Scientific American interviewed for the article[1].

The Sprites went into low-Earth orbit as secondary payloads on the Latvian Venta and Italian Max Valier satellites, launched from India. Signals on 437.325 MHz from at least one of the exterior-mounted Sprites have been received in California and New York.

Manchester launched 104 Sprites into orbit in 2014 aboard KickSat-1, but they failed to deploy.


[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reaching-for-the-stars-breakthrough-sends-smallest-ever-satellites-into-orbit/

---
� Synchronet � Whiskey Lover's Amateur Radio BBS