Three BIRDS-3 satellites with Amateur Radio payloads are scheduled to be deployed from the International Space Station on Monday, June 17. The BIRDS-3 constellation includes CubeSats from three countries: They are Nepal’s first satellite, NepaliSat-1; Uguisu from Japan, and Sri Lanka’s first satellite, Raavana-1.

The primary mission of the BIRDS constellation is to provide ciphered short messages via its 435.375 MHz beacon, giving the opportunity for the Amateur Radio community to decipher the messages using a publicly available key on the BIRDS-3 website.

Operators able to successfully decipher the message will be recognized on the BIRDS-3 website and receive a BIRDS-3 QSL card.

Live streaming of the deployment starts at 0835 UTC. An April 11 Cygnus resupply mission to the ISS delivered the three BIRDS-3 CubeSats and three other CubeSats.