Gould Smith, WA4SXM writing on behalf of the ARISSAT-1 team said construction of the flight unit begins in early February when Tony Monteiro, AA2TX begins electronic assembly of the first US flight unit for ARISSat.

The ARISSAT-1 team has had prototypes working for months. The enclosures have been painted by NASA and the cables prepared by Larry Brown, W7LB. The flight boards were built by the Microchip ARISSat team and Chuck Green, N0ADI, with Chuck checking all the flight units.

Lou McFadin, W5DID has nearly assembled a complete flight structure (see photo above) designed by Bob Davis, KF4KSS. Lou expects to exhibit the structure in the AMSAT Booth at the upcoming Orlando HamCation. The first two flight TX/RX/Command receiver modules from Bill Ress, N6GHZ are due to arrive in February.

[img]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160328main_p36.jpg[/img] Image above: The ISS Progress 36 cargo craft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image Credit: Roscosmos The ISS Progress 36 (P36) unpiloted spacecraft launched at 10:45 p.m. EST Tuesday (9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Baikonur time), loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,683 pounds of spare parts and supplies. On Thursday shortly before 11:30 p.m., P36 will dock automatically to the aft port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station using the Kurs docking system.