Latest launch information:

Launch information status LAUNCHED & OPERATIONAL     Launch date April 28th, 2008     Launch time 09:23:42 local time  /  03:53:42 UTC     Launch team in India April 1st - April 10th, 2008

News:

January 29th, 12:00 (UTC + 1)

1. Following our earlier reports about the transponder issue, we sadly have had to conclude that the linear transponder is not operational anymore. Delfi-C3 / DO-64 has been in basic mode (a mode in which only housekeeping mode is transmitted) for a number of months in order to investigate this issue. Following our extensive tests, we have decided to switch the satellite back to science mode, which from a mission point of view is the most useful mode since it yields valuable science data about the Thin Film Solar Cell payload and the Autonomous Wireless Sun Sensor payload.
2. Today during the 09:33 UTC pass we have successfully commanded the satellite to science mode using the primary downlink at 145.870MHz, 1200Bd AX.25 BPSK and stored this mode in the on board data base. Subsequent database dumps indicated that the new settings have been stored successfully.
   This mode is recognized by the higher rate of telemetry frames on the downlink, 3 payload frames are transmitted followed by 1 housekeeping frame.
   Note that the satellite boots in this mode on 145.870MHz whenever she comes out of eclipse (no battery on board). It is possible, that the satellite decides to use the 145.930 MHz backup downlink. If you hear Delfi-C3 / DO-64 on this frequency, your reports are highly appreciated!
3. Contrary to basic mode, in which the downlink is on continuously, downlink drop outs are likely to occur in science mode. Therefore, it iis possible that the satellite is not heard, and due to the orbit, the chances that the downlink is still on over VK / ZL are slim, sorry to all of you down under! However, if you hear the satellite, your reports are very much appreciated! We regularly post the satellite status on the Oscar status page at http://oscar.dcarr.org/ and encourage you to do so as well.
4. Telemetry can be received using the RASCAL program, which is available at http://www.delfic3.nl/rascal At this moment, the total amount of frames has exceeded the 500000 mark, more precisely 504364 (which amounts to approx. 72.14 MB), a truly magnificent number. Thanks once again to all of you receiving and submitting telemetry!
   When in science mode, the IV curves of the Thin Film Solar Cell payload can be viewed by clicking "options" --> "show IV curves".

January 2nd 2009, 15:30 (UTC + 1)

A status update to begin the year :)

1. On behalf of the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 team we would like to wish you all a very happy 2009!
2. Delfi-C3 is currently operational in basic mode, transmitting housekeeping telemetry at 1200Bd BPSK AX.25 on 145.870MHz. Basic mode is the "safest" mode the spacecraft can be in, since it transmits continuously and furthermore commanding is easiest when in this mode. The craft has been in this mode for a while so that we can analyze a possible issue with the linear transponder :(. As some of you may have noticed, the transponder has been hard to access during its last weeks of operation, contrary to the first weeks where it performed fine. We have performed a number of tests in order to assess this issue, up till now it seems like the issue is in the receiver frontend. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to investigate this issue, so whenever the satellite is over Europe and in range of our groundstation, it may be switched to transponder mode. In this mode, a CW beacon is transmitted at 145.870MHz. When you hear the satellite in this mode, please DO NOT transmit to the satellite until further notice. This will allow us to further characterize the issue and work out a solution, if possible.
3. All other subsystems continue to perform fine on orbit.
4. In the meantime, telemetry can still be received using the RASCAL software package, and forwarded to our server. We have again received  lot of frames already from various hams worldwide, thank you all for your efforts! Note that the primary server at 83.138.144.157 is no longer perational, but the backup server is and will continue to be operational.
5. During our free time around Christmas, we have implemented a number of improvements / bug fixes in RASCAL, the most noticeable one being an mproved tuning range of the demodulator, allowing the input audio carrier to be between 900 and 2300Hz, instead of 1400-1800Hz. This makes tuning much easier. These fixes have been implemented in RASCAL version 1.1.0, which is available for download as of now from the website at: http://www.delfic3.nl/rascal/ On this page, in the "upgrading RASCAL" section, you can also find instructions on how to upgrade to this newer version without losing your original settings and telemetry repository.

October 28th, 16:00 (UTC + 1)

Delfi-C3 has been on orbit for exactly 6 months today and continues to perform well.

October 14th, 14:00 (UTC + 2)

Instead of yesterday the second attempt to command Delfi-C3 to telemetry mode was attempted today. We are happy to report that this attempt has been successful and to announce that Delfi-C3 is once again broadcasting telemetry. Delfi-C3 can be received on the primary telemetry downlink on 145.870 MHz.

October 10th 14:00 (UTC + 2)

Delfi-C3 has been in transponder mode for approximately two months now and is still working fine. The operations team however has decided to switch Delfi-C3 back to a telemetry mode in order to obtain a more comprehensive dataset of housekeeping and payload data than we have been able to collect in the last two months. It is at this point unknown how long this switch-over will last.

The first attempt to make this switch was performed today and has unfortunately not been successful. The next attempt will be coming monday. We will keep you posted on the progress.

We would like to invite all the radio amateurs to start collecting data with the RASCAL software package again as soon as Delfi-C3 has been switched. If you are not familiar with RASCAL please go to telemetry decoding page for more information and to download the software. Many thanks in advance!

September 4th 11:00 (UTC + 2)

Here's a quick update on Delfi-C3.

The satellite's still operating nominally in transponder mode and is being commanded back to science mode a few times a week. The telemetry is also still showing nominal performance of all on-board systems. During passes over own ground station we can hear a lot of amateurs making contacts through the satellite transponder.

In order to get a day-to-day overview of the satellite's status, we would like to refer you to the OSCAR satellite status page of David Carr, KD5QGR. We post the status of the satellite there during most passes over our own groundstation and would like to encourage you to do the same thing.

The Delfi-C3 team

July 29th 15:00 (UTC + 2)

Please find below the latest status update of the Delfi-C3 / DO-64 satellite

1. We have concluded the first three months of science mission with great success. A big word of thanks to all amateur radio operators around the world for collecting and forwarding telemetry, sending reception reports and observations, and thanks for all the tremendous support we have received. As of this moment, we have collected 396564 AX.25frames through the worldwide network... a truly amazing number. Thank you all so much.
2. Delfi-C3 has been switched to permanent transponder mode during the 10:00 UTC pass today (July 29th) over the Delfi-C3 groundstation in The Netherlands. This means that the spacecraft now boots in transponder mode as soon as the spacecraft exits eclipse. This was verified by a successful OBC database dump shortly after that and during the following pass over the groundstation.
3. We plan to switch the satellite back into either basic or science mode, approx. once every 2 weeks for short times during passes over our groundstation for housekeeping purposes. During these passes either the 145.870MHz or 145.930MHz downlink will be on transmitting 1200Bd BPSK, and the transponder will then be off. We would like to encourage everyone to forward telemetry using RASCAL in the usual way during these passes. Longer periods of BPSK telemetry will be announced on the AMSAT-BB and on this page.
4. Reports have indicated a slight frequency offset of the transponder, i.e. an uplink of 435.556MHz corresponds to 145.900MHz in the downlink passband. This was actually known before launch, and is caused by a slight frequency offset in one of the spacecraft's local oscillators. The video on YouTube is a video from the first transponder contact using our "flatsat" transponder prototype in early 2007, which is not the same as the flight model. However, the flatsat prototype also showed a slight frequency offset, as G0MRF pointed out.
5. The transponder mode beacon is at 145.870MHz, approx 10dB below PEP, transmitting a CW beacon message, followed by a commemorative Sputnik message consisting of 6 dits. Actually, the CW beacon is transmitted using Double Sideband, there are two CW carriers 1200Hz apart.
6. Reports on the transponder's operation are more than welcome, either on the BB (which is read by us on a daily basis) or directly to info at delfic3.nl
   

Having said all this, the team is happy to open the transponder for use, and wishes you good DX. Enjoy!

July 24th 15:00 (UTC + 2)

Delfi-C3 is still in excellent condition and we continue to gather data with the continued support of radio amateurs across the world. This weekend (April 25 - 27) the team will be attending the AMSAT UK colloquium and during this event the Delfi-C3 transponder will regularly be activated temporarily. The transponder can only be activated during a pass over the Delft groundstation and we can not guarantuee that this will be the case after every pass (there are interesting presentations to attend at the colloquium after all!).

For details on the transponder mode, please refer to the mission operations page.

June 16th 12:30 (UTC + 2)

Since the team has been quite busy it has taken us some time to come up with another update, but here it is.

1. The spacecraft continues to work fine, we have received over 270000 telemetry frames so far, thanks so much!
2. A magnificent model of the satellite, made by Stefan Wagener VE4NSA is available on our photo weblog at http://www.delfic3.nl/photoblog/
3. The spacecraft still experiences the downlink dropout issue, since this is a non-critical issue, and since we are limited in our possibilities to do something about it, we have decided to leave it as is. If the spacecraft's downlink is off when over our groundstation, we will command it back on. Our expectation is that this does not occur when the spacecraft is in transponder mode, so once we switch it to that mode, it should be fine.
4. The TX distortion issue has turned out to be a separate issue (contrary to our earlier assumptions, it is not related to the dropouts), related to the behaviour of the (battery-less) power system. This is also non-critical, and has shown to solve itself after the spacecraft has rotated a bit more

May 27th 15:15 (UTC + 2)

Hi all,

Another status update of the Delfi-C3 satellite:

1. First, something on a lighter note: we have posted two videos on our photo weblog at http://www.delfic3.nl/photoblog/ The first one of the final integration of Delfi-C3, and the second one was made on launch day, April 28th, during the pass over our groundstation when we first heard Delfi-C3 (after she had already been heard by Rick Mann in the US) and in which we decoded the very first telemetry. As you can see, things were both hectic & great fun that day!
2. Meanwhile, being almost one month in orbit, the satellite is doing fine, all telemetry still shows nominal values. The satellite is commanded regularly with good success down to low elevation (2 deg). We have not yet applied a final cure for the downlink cut out problem as we are doing some more testing when she is over our groundstation.
3. Rotation rate seems to have decreased significantly over the last weeks, we are still analyzing telemetry to further quantify this observation.

The Delfi-C3 team

May 18th 15:00 (UTC + 2)

Hi all,

Another status update on the Delfi-C3 satellite

1. During the 10:40 UTC pass over the Delfi-C3 groundstation on Thursday 15th of May, the linear transponder was successfully tested and activated for a short time. Good signals using SSB were received. Listen to a soundclip of the test.
2. We are currently performing tests while the spacecraft is over our groundstation in order to address the downlink dropout issue. Since we take it step by step, the satellite may still experience downlink drop outs over the coming days.
3. TLE's for object G match best at this moment, we are becoming more and more confident that G is in fact Delfi-C3.
4. Up to this date, we have received over 130000 AX.25 frames from all over the world, thank you very much for your efforts and observations!
5. Delfi-C3 has been given an OSCAR number by AMSAT, and is now Also Known As DO-64, which stands for Delfi-C3 OSCAR 64 or Dutch OSCAR 64. It is a true honour for all team members to have Delfi-C3 join in the long tradition of OSCAR satellites.

 The Delfi-C3 team

May 7th 14:00 (UTC + 2)

Hi all,

Another status update of the Delfi-C3 satellite:

1. Delfi-C3 is now in orbit for over a week, and continues to perform well.
2. We are aware of the transmitter distortion and drop outs occurring. These two are related, and are not related to the transmitter itself, but are the result of a power / attitude issue combined with the way our Electrical Power System works. Thanks to all your reports we now have a clear view of what is happening, and are in the process of taking corrective actions while the s/c is over our groundstation. We are taking these actions step by step so the phenomenon will continue to occur over the coming days. Your reports on this phenomenon are welcome.
3. We are still not sure which TLE's correspond to Delfi-C3, so it is indeed kind of like a lottery hi:) Time will tell, since the s/c will drift further apart over time, so that we can discriminate better between the individual satellites. During the last days, our groundstation has been using object # 32789 with good results.
4. There have been a number of orbits where the spacecraft entered "emergency mode". Up till now, every eclipse (reset) has cleared these issues. We think we have an understanding of what causes this. If you hear the satellite in emergency mode, your reports are appreciated, either on the BB or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
5. Today we tried listening to the satellite using handheld receivers and Arrow antennas, on the groundstation roof. Delfi-C3 was nice and strong during this overhead pass, we had a tremendous amount of fun as you can see from the photos at our photo weblog. It was a magnificent feeling to be staring into the blue sky knowing that our spacecraft was somewhere up high.
6. Up till now we have received 70000+ AX.25 telemetry frames from the satellite on our servers, thank you all for listening and submitting!
   

The Delfi-C3 team

May 4th 15:00 (UTC + 2)

'Not much' going on during this weekend. Delfi-C3 was heard on all passes over Delft and on several across the world, including the United States and New Zealand. One of the passes this morning had Delfi-C3 in emergency mode, but the next orbit it was in science mode again. The spacecraft is still in healthy condition, approaching one week in orbit!

May 2nd 15:30 (UTC + 2)

We have had a few excellent morning passes over Delft and before that one over South Africa. We have been able to switch operational modes on the spacecraft for a short while. Amateurs in Western Europe may have noticed, as it only transmits housekeeping information in this mode. We have also gained a better understanding of the spacecraft's behaviour, due to the large amounts of data we have received from the radio-amateur community.

May 2nd 00:50 (UTC + 2)

Delfi-C3 was heard during all passes over Delft today and tonight and she's still healthy. Delfi-C3 was also heard twice over the USA today during descending passes, on top of several ascending passes just after eclipse last night. We would like to send another big thank you to all the radio amateurs sending us pass reports, wave files, telemetry through RASCAL, and all their thought and observations about the spacecraft. So far we have received over 20.000 (!!) telemetry frames from 65 stations across the world! Truly overwhelming!

May 1st 12:10 (UTC + 2)

Hi all,

Another status update on Delfi-C3.

1. During the pass of 09:30 UTC over Europe, we have performed successful database dumps again, some of you may have heard these since the frames sound quite different compared to normal housekeeping / payload frames. These frames are also captured by RASCAL, displayed in the terminal and uploaded to our server.
2. During this same pass, we have successfully switched the spacecraft to its primary radio on 145.870MHz temporarily, after this switch, the satellite came back on on the 145.930MHz downlink. Telemetry indicated that the primary radio on 145.870MHz is healthy and working fine so that is good news.
   Note that the satellite will normally transmit on 145.930MHz for the time being, unless we command her to go to 145.870MHz. This might occur more in the coming days when the s/c is in range of our groundstation, so listeners in Europe might want to check the 145.870MHz transmitter also when the 145.930MHz transmitter shuts down. We have noted that the 145.870MHz transmitter is a little (1kHz) low in frequency so actually on 145.869MHz.
3. Yesterday (April 30) we were able to successfully command on our backup command uplink so we have both command uplinks working nominally at this moment.
4. We are currently investigating the rotational behaviour of the satellite, your observations w.r.t. spin rate / signal strength are more than welcome, combined with telemetry we should be able to fully assess how the s/c is rotating. We suspect that this may actually give a clue to the TX dropouts experienced.
5. We have successfully gathered raw data from the wireless sun sensor payload
6. Note that we have locked the bootcounter value so it will always display 2273 from now on until we unlock it again
7. Although TLE's for object #32787 are listed on our webpage, we are not entirely sure that this is in fact Delfi-C3. We probably won't have confirmation until after a day or 3-4 when the satellites have separated a bit more. For now, object #32787 should be fine for tracking though, but your observations w.r.t. AOS / LOS times are welcome.
8. Following the report from VE2DWE about the TX sounding distorted, we would like to ask everyone to record a wav if possible when this phenomenom is heard, you can send the wav files to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Our inbox has no problem with large file sizes.

April 30th 10:20 (UTC + 2)

Hi all,
 
Delfi-C3 is in orbit and healthy, despite some minor issues, please find a status update below:

1. Telemetry indicates that all solar panels and antennas have deployed properly
2. Telemetry indicates nominal values for all housekeeping values
3. We have already obtained payload data, and have been able to generate IV curves of the Thin Film Solar Cell experiment, note that those uring RASCAL can view the IV curves by clicking Options-->show IV curves in RASCAL.
4. The spacecraft is operating in science mode, we have had one orbit in emergency mode, which was most probably due to a databus issue
5. Up till now we have received 7000+ (!) frames from amateurs using RASCAL around the globe, amazing, thank you all so much!!
6. We have verified command uplink functionality yesterday, and were able to command the spacecraft today on the low elevation (4.9max) pass over our GS at 0737UTC
7. The spacecraft has decided to consistently use the backup radio on 145.930MHz for its telemetry downlink, we were able to request a full on-board database dump while in range of our groundstation yesterday and analysis of the database confirms this. We currently have a good understanding why this is the case. We will try to switch downlinks to the primary radio on 145.870MHz during the next good pass over our GS, so amateurs in Western Europe might want to check that frequency also and might experience intermittent telemetry while we are commanding. Note that we suspect that the TX frequency could be 1 to 2 kHz lower on this radio, so tuning around slowly is the best strategy.
8. The spacecraft seems to have an issue with the downlink TX switching off into the orbit, which is the reason while Delfi-C3 has not been heard on most descending passes over VK/ZL, we think we have a good understanding of why it is. The TX itself is fine, but it switches off automatically when it does not get data from the OBC for a certain amount of time. We are working on resolving this issue. This also happened during the pass over our GS at 0737 UTC but we were able to command it back on. For those in Western Europe we would like to ask to keep tracking Delfi-C3 even if you can not hear it at first, as we will try to turn the TX back on as soon as we notice that it has been turned off.
9. Thank you all for your observations on the spin rate, these are really helpful! We currently think that the spacecraft is tumbling with approx 10deg/second, which corresponds to a 36 second period. Since the s/c downlink antenna is almost truely circular, polarization sense can change from RHCP to LHCP completely depending on s/c orientation, we use circular antennas on our GS as well, and when we switch to the opposite polarizaiton sense the signal is wiped out completely, switching back gives solid copy with strong sigs.
10. NORAD object E #32787 seems to match best

April 29th 22:25 (UTC + 2)

Two passed just occurred over Delft and we have received telemetry during both. Delfi-C3 is still in excellent health! And so is our data collection network: at least 10 radio amateurs from Italy, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and The Netherlands received data and sent it to us. Thank you very much for the effort and data so far :)

April 29th 14:40 (UTC + 2)

There have been 4 passes of Delfi-C3 over Delft with the following results. 

• 1st pass: nothing heard
• 2nd pass: heard in emergency mode
• 3rd pass: heard in science mode
• 4rd pass: heard in science mode after radio recovery commands

April 28th 23:55 (UTC + 2) 

The last three passes of today have been succesfully tracked by the Delft groundstation and many other groundstations. During two of the three passes Delfi-C3 came out of eclipse in range of our groundstation and we could hear it booting and starting to transmit. We have received many telemetry frames from radio-amateurs all across the world and we would like to thank them for their efforts so far!! Signing off after a big and succesful day, the Delfi-C3 team.

April 28th 18:00 (UTC + 2)

We have received Delfi-C3 from several groundstation in Finland, Sweden, Canda, and the United States. The next pass in Delft should be around 20:00 (UTC + 2).

April 28th 14:20 (UTC + 2)

We have heard Delfi-C3 and successfully decoded telemetry! We have received housekeeping data and all seems to be nominal. Packets are flowing in through our groundstation network!!

April 28th 13:15 (UTC + 2)

The second pass has come and gone without any received signal or data. We are still working to get a good set of TLEs and we are keeping our fingers crossed for the next pass in about half an hour.

April 28th 10:55 (UTC + 2)

We have just had the first pass over Delft but we did not hear the spacecraft. The next pass will be at 10:11 UTC and we will keep you posted.

April 28th 09:50 (UTC + 2)

Delfi-C3 has been heard over the west coast of the United States. We have checked and double-checked the recording and it's definitely Delfi-C3 in science mode. A pass is coming up in 45 minutes so we expect to get the first date!

April 28th 07:40 (UTC + 2)

Launch went smoothly and we have confirmation that Delfi-C3 has been separated from the X-POD. We are still awaiting the first signals.

April 27th 17:00 (UTC + 2)

Only 13 hours left in the countdown. Update the launchtime to include seconds.

April 24th 00:30 (UTC + 2)

We have just received word from that the PSLV has been rolled out to the launchpad and an official launch date has been announced: 28th of April!

April 19th 14:30 (UTC + 2)

We have received word from our launch provider that Delfi-C3, along with all other satellites, has been integrated on to the launch vehicle.

April 11th  12:00 (UTC + 2)

The launch preparation team has arrived safely back in The Netherlands. All checkouts for Delfi-C3 have been completed succesfully and it's awaiting launch in its X-POD.

April 4th, 13:00 (UTC + 5.5)

The launch preparation team has safely arrived in India and is busy checking Delfi-C3. Everything has been found ok so far. The launch window remains as is.

March 20th, 14:15 (UTC + 1)

We have synchronized our departure date with the other teams going to India.

March 10th, 10:38 (UTC + 1)

Due to some confusion about the previous announcement, the launch date has been corrected. The launch team's departure date is now scheduled for the 30th of March as before.

February 25th, 12:45 (UTC + 1)

The launch provider has narrowed down the launch window to the 2nd week of April without specifying an exact launh date. The launch team departure date has been moved forward by a week.

February 20th, 10:45 (UTC + 1)

No further news about the launch has been announced, but the launch team departure date has been updated.

February 4th 2008, 13:37 (UTC + 1)

A major slip in the launch schedule has been announced by our launch broker. While it remains unclear as to why exactly the launch was delayed, we are now working with a launch in mid-april.

January 18th 2008, 11:20 (UTC + 1)

We have received an update from our launch broker yesterday. This update calls for a launch on March 4th. The update also contained a tentative launch time, which also has been updated on this page and the countdown timer.

January 14th 2008, 12:20 (UTC + 1)

The travel schedule of the launch team has had a slight adjustment, they are now scheduled to leave for India three days earlier, on February 14th.

January 11th 2008, 14:30 (UTC + 1)

Today we received a new tentative schedule and launch date from our launch broker. This schedule has a planned launch  on March 7th, but this is by no means a fixed date.

January 11th 2008, 12:30 (UTC + 1)

We have created this mission status page to keep everybody apprised of the latest news regarding the launch and early operations of the Delfi-C³ satellite. Before the launch we will be posting the latest known launch dates and schedules for our launch team. The simplified URL for easy bookmarking of this page is http://www.delfic3.nl/missionstatus/.