A good preview of ESA missions with (IMHO) terrible audio quality. I thought it was just the version I was watching but no, they are all the same.

Audio aside, I can’t wait to see that Vega launch coming right up on February 9, the VV01 as it is called is going to carry nine satellites into orbit including seven CubeSats from European universities.

I love the CubeSats. Typically they are a 10 cm cube, that’s 3.9 inches in the US and they weigh in at about 1.33 kg or 2.9 lbs. They give a platform for students to perform space science experiments and exploration. CubeSats have been built by academia as they utilize off-the-shelf electronics. Several companies have built CubeSats including Boeing, builders of “regular” satellites. CubeSats are very popular and provide a nice fit with the ham radio crowd too, of which I am happy to say I belong.

BTW: I’ve been hearing the aurora was very nice last night, I was clouded in so I can’t say. Hard to believe as the K indices were not that high, it could be the reports were originating in very high latitudes though.

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