Go to AMSAT News for the latest about developments in amateur and student satellites and for updates about amateur radio on the ISS. Here are today’s headlines:

ANS 124 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – May 4, 2014:
* LituanicaSAT-1 FM Transponder Operation Feedback
* BOOK NOW FOR THE SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM ON 24 MAY
* Eighth Annual AMSAT/TAPR Banquet Reservations Close May 13th
* UK CubeSat Workshop: Student Research Pitches
* Ham Radio Earth-Moon-Earth Art Event on Google+ Hangout
* HAMSAT – VO-52 Completes 9 Years in Space
* Commercial HDTV Streaming Live from ISS
* AMSAT Office Relocated; Reopens
* AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention — Last call for volunteers
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

Other smallsat, space radio news:

• KickSat’s Current Status — Kickstarter – 104 Sprite chipsats may fail to be released before the cubesat deorbits:

  “One consequence of the watchdog reset on KickSat is that the spacecraft’s master clock was reset, thus also setting the deployment countdown for KickSat back to 16 days. That would put the deployment some time in the morning of May 16th. Unfortunately, it looks like KickSat will most likely reenter and burn up before the 16th. We’ve spent the last couple of days here at Cornell trying to think of every possible contingency, but it seems there aren’t very many options right now. KickSat’s uplink radio, which we could use to command the deployment, can’t turn on unless the batteries reach 8 volts, and it doesn’t look like they’ll reach that level in time.

  While the situation looks a little bleak, there is still some hope that the batteries may recharge sufficiently to command the satellite. There is also a small chance that KickSat could remain in orbit until the 16th, at which point the timer would set off the deployment as originally planned. We’ll continue tracking KickSat over the next few days with the help of the ham community, so that we can keep track of its battery voltage and the Sprite deployment status.”

• The K7RA Solar Update – ARRL