UK-built PocketQube satellite, Unicorn-2A, developed by radio amateurs at Glasgow’s Alba Orbital, will launch later in 2018 from Alaska.

Three radio amateurs at Alba Orbital worked on Unicorn-2A, which will have downlinks in the 437 MHz and 2400 MHz bands. One of the transmission modes will be LoRa, a patented wireless communication technology. A 3rd quarter 2018 launch is planned on a Vector Launch Inc. rocket from Kodiak, Alaska, into a 350 × 350 kilometer 98° orbit. The mission will last about 45 days.

A Dutch PocketQube, Delfi-PQ, downlink 436.650 MHz, is expected to be a fellow passenger on the launch. Alba Orbital is collaborating with the University of Aachen in Germany and its Amateur Radio group DL0FHA to trial Unicorn-2A operations and act as a backup, to help students to learn about communication with a real mission.