Spektr-R / RadioAstron

Spektr-R / RadioAstron was launched on the 18th of July 2011 from Baikonur Cosmodrome and is a radio telescope designed for VLBI observations. It is in an eccentric orbit with a perigee of 10000 Km and an apogee of 390000 Km and due to its very close proximity to Earth, the X-Band downlink on 8400.000MHz is a very strong signal.

According to the radio telescope user manual, the 8.4GHz downlink and corresponding 7.2GHz uplink are used as part of the frequency reference system on board the spacecraft.

The FFT's below show some of the typical signals from the spacecraft, with the first image showing a signal more than 50dB over noise!

Sound recording of the above carrier