BurstCube: status and public alerts

BurstCube is a CubeSat Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) detector expected to launch in 2022, significantly expanding sky coverage in the 50 keV to 1 MeV energy range and increasing the probability of detecting a gravitational wave counterpart. BurstCube will take advantage of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system in order to provide rapid public alerts and localization information, which has proven to be key to obtain valuable multi-messenger and multi-wavelength information. The BurstCube instrument is comprised of four Cesium Iodide scintillators coupled to arrays of Silicon Photomultipliers, therefore serving as a pathfinder for future missions utilizing this technology for space-based gamma-ray detection. In this presentation we will discuss the current status of the BurstCube instrument assembly, calibration and analysis pipelines. We will also describe the real-time alerts that will be sent out to the community throughout the duration of the mission.