Pioneer satellites launch on board Soyuz

The latest ESA Partnership Projects mission has launched two tiny supercomputing nanosatellites aboard a Soyuz rocket from Vostochny in Russia.

The parallel supercomputing scalable devices, aboard the lightweight, shoebox-sized nanosatellites, can be programmed to both receive and process data while in orbit. This enables them to select high-quality data and immediately transfer it to Earth.

Their owner, Spire Global, specializes in using continuous global monitoring to track aircraft, ships and weather patterns using a large constellation of 80 nanosatellites that report to a global network of ground stations.

The two new satellites, developed under ESA’s Pioneer programme, were designed, built and tested at Spire Global’s factory in Glasgow, with support from the UK Space Agency.

They were launched aboard a Soyuz Meteor rocket on 5 July 2019.