Fly Your Satellite! Test Opportunities

The ESA Academy is offering student teams support with the preparation and execution of environmental testing of their student designed and built hardware through dedicated access to the CubeSat Support Facility (CSF). The Test Opportunities pilot programme is an educational opportunity for University student teams from an eligible state who would like to receive support and training in conducting an environmental test campaign. This opportunity is a response to the ESA Agenda 2025 ‘Open labs’ action, where ESA Education opens up access to its testing facilities and enables sharing of technical competences to support, through the training of students, the enhancement of European industrial competitiveness.

As part of this hands-on experience, teams will learn how science, engineering, product assurance and project management come together to make a test campaign successful. Students will be introduced to standard space project testing practices, which can be directly applied to the verification of their system under development or qualification. In this framework, they will also learn how to approach AIV activities, requirements verification and test documentation preparation

Want to apply?

Detailed Information on the available test windows, milestones and programme phases is captured on the programme timeline page.

Student teams can apply by submitting a test proposal. The Proposal Instructions page contains all the information related to how to apply and the conditions to apply.

Keep an eye out on the ESA Education website to be updated on the latest news. For further information please contact us at cubesats@esa.int.

More about Test Opportunities

Selected teams will be granted access to conduct a test campaign at the CSF where they can make use of the Thermal Vacuum Chamber or Vacuum oven to recreate the vacuum and temperature conditions in space, and/or an Electrodynamic Shaker system to mimic vibrational loads experienced during launch.

The programme offers students the opportunity to verify equipment, payloads, experiments or entire nanosatellites before their ride to space or flight in other platforms. Students aspiring to conduct technological or scientific investigations requiring access to environmental facilities are also invited to apply. The proposal shall highlight how the test campaign will enable to produce valuable engineering and/or scientific results.

In their proposal, teams should describe what is the nature of their activity, which can range from the development of nanosatellites or subsystems, scientific research, technology demonstration, astrobiology experiment etc…

Looking for further information?

Meet the Test Opportunities team before submitting your proposal!

It is possible to register for the Information Session for potential applicants.