Veery 0.5 · Testing in orbit
Fledgling Veery “Brendan”
Care Weather’s fifth test satellite and take two at using a tiny radar to measure wind speeds over the ocean.
- Flight ID
- Veery-0G
- Flight version
- 0.5
- Launch year
- 2025
- Iterations
- 2
Satellite
Brendan is the 5th iteration in our series of miniature satellite weather radar tech demos. The satellite aims to be the first to demonstrate ocean wind speed measurement where its predecessors have stumbled.
Brendan will also demonstrate a host of new tools, including: more accurate guidance sensors, improved Earth-pointing software refined through hundreds of hours of ground testing, electromagnets for rotation, numerous fixes to the momentum gyros, an experimental downlink system that embeds data in the radar’s calibration signals, and over-the-air software patching.
- Instantaneous power
- 10 W
- Data rate
- 50 kbps
- Battery capacity
- 3.2 A·h
- Mass
- 1 kg
- Processor speed
- 1 GHz
Mission
The primary goal of this mission is to get our first wind data as soon as possible. The satellite includes a number of improvements that should resolve guidance issues in previous satellites and get us quickly through commissioning and into weather monitoring.
- Launch provider
- SpaceX
- Orbital altitude
- 510 km
- Launch vehicle
- Falcon 9
- Orbital inclination
- 97°
- Mission duration
- 36 months
- Orbital life
- 3 years
Veery-0G “Brendan” was built by Alex Laraway, Patrick Walton, Chris Paul, David Long, Kayla Ward, Ben Skinner, Tyler Waites, Jacob Corless, and Caleb Byington.
Brendan is named after a friend who left Earth too soon to fly among the stars.