International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, RN3FI, and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy manually deployed five nanosatellites during a spacewalk on August 17. Three of the satellites carry Amateur Radio payloads. Tanyusha-SWSU 1 and 2 (also known as also known as Radioskaf 6 and 7 — RS6S and RS7S) will transmit either 9.6 kB FSK or FM voice announcements on 437.050 MHz, while Tomsk-TPU-120 (RS4S) will transmit FM voice announcements on 437.025. The satellites were deployed from the Pirs airlock module of the ISS. Both have been reported active.

Tanyusha 1 and 2 will transmit greetings in Russian, English, Spanish, and Chinese.

Tomsk-TPU-120 was developed by students at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) to test new space materials technology. It is the first-ever space vehicle with a 3D-printed structure. It was launched to the ISS in March as part of a cargo shipment.

According to Alexey Yakovlev, who heads TPU’s Institute of High Technologies, the 3D printed satellite is something of a landmark for additive manufacturing, being the first example of a fully 3D printed satellite.

“Tomsk-TPU-120 is the first such project in the world, in which the entire casing of a satellite is fully 3D printed using dynamic modeling,” Yakovlev told Sputnik News. “The combination of these technologies can significantly reduce the development time and the number of full-scale tests, find new engineering solutions, and reduce the project’s cost.”

Tomsk Polytechnic University celebrated its 120th anniversary in May, and, as part of the celebration, Tomsk-TPU-120 was activated while still aboard the ISS, transmitting greetings recorded by TPU students in 10 languages — Russian, English, German, French, Chinese, Arabic, Tatar, Indian, Kazakh, and Portuguese. The UHF signal from the satellite was relayed on VHF via the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Kenwood dualband transceiver on the ISS, which retransmitted the signal on 145.800 MHz FM. — Thanks to Southgate Amateur Radio News; AMSAT UK