The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Recording of signal coming from student-built CubeSat OUFTI-1 which, as part of ESA's Education 'Fly Your Satellite!' programme, was launched on 25 April 2016 on the Soyuz VS14 flight from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Together with CNES’ MICROSCOPE scientific satellite, OUFTI-1, together with AAUSAT4 and e-st@r-II CubeSats, was an auxiliary payload in the launch of Sentinel 1B, the main passenger on this flight. The signal translates into a basic health report and was registered on 26 April, at 07:46 CEST from ESA's ESTEC centre in The Netherlands, when the CubeSat was over N-E Europe. The tone changes because of the Doppler shift introduced by the CubeSat's motion.
OUFTI-1 was built by students from the University of Liège, Belgium, and is the first Belgian student-built satellite, the first Belgian CubeSat, the first satellite fully conceived, built, managed and operated in Belgium, and the world’s first satellite featuring D-STAR radio communications.