* Astronomy

Chibis-M (Chibis means a "lapwing" in Russian, it is the name of a bird of the Vanellus family, the "M" stands for Molniya=Thunderstorm) is a low-cost microsatellite mission of IKI-RAS (Space Research Institute-Russian Academy of Sciences), Moscow, Russia. The partner institutions of the science mission are: SINP (D. V. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics) of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Moscow; SRG (Space Research Group) of Eötvös University, Budapest, & BL-Electronics Kft., Solymar, Hungary; and LC-ISR (Lviv Centre-Institute for Space Research) of NANU-NKAU, Lviv, Ukraine. The PI of the Chibis project is Lev Zeleny of IKI.
The objective of the mission is to study the interrelation of the transient plasma-wave processes connected with the manifestation in the ionosphere of solar-magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere connections and the parameters of space weather.
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The amateur radio satellite will be deployed from Progress M-13M into a 500 km orbit on January 24 at approximately 23:14 UT and the RS-39 team request reports that will be confirmed by a special QSL card.
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