Ioffe Institute
Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics
enru

239Alferov

About the mission

239Alferov is an educational 3U CubeSat mission. It was launched on 25 July 2025 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The mission combines amateur radio and space research objectives.

The gamma-ray detector onboard 239Alferov contains a 64×72×15 mm NaI(Tl) scintillator, read out by a SiPM array, and covers the energy range from approximately 20 keV to 1000 keV.

Scientific observations began in December 2025. The instrument currently records count rates in five energy bands: approximately 20–50 keV, 50–100 keV, 100–500 keV, 500–1000 keV, and >1000 keV, with a temporal resolution of 0.5 s.

Sky surveys last for several days, with approximately day-long intervals between observing sessions for data analysis and technical maintenance.

The mission ground segment uses the open SONIKS ground station network.

Current detector operation time

During the interval 2025-12-02 — 2026-06-04:

23 days

List of detected bursts

Name Date and time 239Alferov GCN Other detections
GRB 251203A 29925.150 s UT
(08:18:45.150)
-- Fermi-GBM (GCN 42968),
AstroSat-CZTI (GCN 42991),
SVOM-GRM (GCN 42995),
GECAM-B (GCN 42996),
Insight-HXMT/HE (GCN 43002)
GRB 260101A 3390.650 s UT
(00:56:30.650)
43481 Fermi-GBM (GCN 43284),
Swift-BAT (GCN 43285),
SVOM-GRM (GCN 43292),
GECAM-B (GCN 43294),
Konus-Wind (GCN 43389)
GRB 260121A 8549.319 s UT
(02:22:29.319)
43612 IPN (GCN 43564),
Konus-Wind (GCN 43611)
GRB 260604A 8667.541 s UT
(02:24:27.541)
45005 Fermi-GBM (GCN 44812),
Glowbug (GCN 44845),
SVOM-GRM (GCN 44863)
GRB 260604B 31555.356 s UT
(08:45:55.356)
45006 Fermi-GBM (GCN 44818),
SVOM-GRM (GCN 44850)

The date and time correspond to the trigger times of near-Earth spacecraft; for GRB 260121A, the Konus-Wind trigger time is given.

Links

239Alferov in the news