diff --git a/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/cmd_tlm/inst_tlm.txt b/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/cmd_tlm/inst_tlm.txt
index 302404dec7..e970a5161f 100644
--- a/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/cmd_tlm/inst_tlm.txt
+++ b/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/cmd_tlm/inst_tlm.txt
@@ -145,5 +145,6 @@ TELEMETRY <%= target_name %> MECH BIG_ENDIAN "Mechanism status"
     UNITS DEGREES DEG
   APPEND_ITEM CURRENT       32 FLOAT    "Device current"
     UNITS micro-Ampères µA
+  APPEND_ITEM STRING       0 STRING     "String"
   ITEM PACKET_TIME 0 0 DERIVED "Ruby time based on TIMESEC and TIMEUS"
     READ_CONVERSION openc3/conversions/unix_time_conversion.py TIMESEC TIMEUS
diff --git a/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/lib/sim_inst.py b/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/lib/sim_inst.py
index 2ec0e5f3d5..ec08a0e47b 100644
--- a/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/lib/sim_inst.py
+++ b/openc3-cosmos-init/plugins/packages/openc3-cosmos-demo/targets/INST2/lib/sim_inst.py
@@ -373,6 +373,7 @@ def read(self, count_100hz, time):
                     packet.write("slrpnl4", self.solar_panel_positions[3])
                     packet.write("slrpnl5", self.solar_panel_positions[4])
                     packet.write("current", 0.5)
+                    packet.write("string", f"Time is {time}")
 
         # Every 10s throw an unknown packet at the server just to demo that
         if count_100hz % 1000 == 900:
diff --git a/openc3/python/openc3/accessors/binary_accessor.py b/openc3/python/openc3/accessors/binary_accessor.py
index 36a2f073c5..c89129a1d9 100644
--- a/openc3/python/openc3/accessors/binary_accessor.py
+++ b/openc3/python/openc3/accessors/binary_accessor.py
@@ -349,7 +349,10 @@ def write(
             #######################################
 
             if cls.byte_aligned(bit_offset):
-                temp = value
+                if data_type == "STRING" and type(value) == str:
+                    temp = value.encode(encoding="utf-8")
+                else:
+                    temp = value
                 if given_bit_size <= 0:
                     end_bytes = -math.floor(given_bit_size / 8)
                     old_upper_bound = len(buffer) - 1 - end_bytes
diff --git a/openc3/python/test/accessors/test_binary_accessor_write.py b/openc3/python/test/accessors/test_binary_accessor_write.py
index 028418d2e7..23a61bc10d 100644
--- a/openc3/python/test/accessors/test_binary_accessor_write.py
+++ b/openc3/python/test/accessors/test_binary_accessor_write.py
@@ -402,6 +402,18 @@ def test_writes_a_shorter_string_with_zero_bit_size(self):
         )
         self.assertEqual(self.data, b"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00")
 
+    def test_writes_a_string_with_zero_bit_size(self):
+        BinaryAccessor.write(
+            "This is a test",
+            0,
+            0,
+            "STRING",
+            self.data,
+            "BIG_ENDIAN",
+            "ERROR",
+        )
+        self.assertEqual(self.data, b"This is a test")
+
     def test_writes_a_shorter_block_with_zero_bit_size(self):
         BinaryAccessor.write(
             b"\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00",