First observations and results from the Very-Low-Frequency Propagation Mapper (VPM) CubeSat mission

The Very-Low-Frequency Propagation Mapper (VPM) CubeSat was designed to observe VLF waves from Low-Earth Orbit. In particular, VPM uses a single-axis electric field antenna and a single magnetic search coil to measure VLF waves from 300 Hz to 40 kHz. Among the mission objectives, VPM was designed to detect and measure artificial VLF signals transmitted from the Demonstration and Science Experiments (DSX) mission in Medium-Earth Orbit. The VPM CubeSat was launched and commissioned in February 2020; it successfully collected electric field data for six months before communication with the spacecraft was lost.