The DeorbitSailCubeSat, built by researchers and radio amateurs at the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford, England, was launched into orbit on July 10. It carries a 1200 bps BPSK beacon transmitting on 145.975 MHz. The first DeorbitSail packet reports to the Surrey Space Centre came from Ken Swaggart, W7KKE, in Oregon. Nitin Muttin, VU3TYG, reported receiving signals as the CubeSat passed over India.

The DeorbitSail project is a collaboration to build a 3U CubeSat with a deployable sail that will demonstrate rapid deorbiting from low-Earth orbit, taking advantage of the increased aerodynamic drag from a large deployed sail. The satellite will return to the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere over time, as its altitude reduces. The project team has expressed its gratitude to the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Chris Bridges, 2E0OBC, is accepting all available telemetry files via e-mail. Tracking and other information is available on the AMSAT-UK website. Follow the Surrey Space Center on Twitter