Delfi-C3 (DO-64) Team at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2008 in Guildford
On April 28, 2012 the nanosatellite Delfi-C3 (DO-64) celebrated 4 years in orbit and is still alive and kicking!
This 3-unit CubeSat, developed by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands has been largely developed by students and performed technology demonstration experiments for the space industry in the Netherlands. After being launched on PSLV-C9 in 2008 it has been circling the earth for 1461 days (exceeding its design lifetime with 1371 days)!
The satellite still broadcasts its telemetry and measurement data which can be received using simple amateur radio equipment and using the RASCAL software (available on the Delfi website: http://www.delfispace.nl/index.php/participation/radio-amateur-participation).
The satellite project was also the birthplace of ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space as the company’s founders and a significant number of its employees have worked on the satellite project at the start of their careers. We congratulate the university with the milestone and excellent demonstration that well coordinated student satellite projects can produce great results and exceed all expectations.
- The university news article can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/Delfi-C3-4th-Anniversary (in Google English),
- ESA astronaut André Kuipers PI9ISS congratulates Delfi-C3 from the ISS on his twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/astro_andre (in Dutch).
Regards,
Jeroen Rotteveel