Lift-off for ³Cat-4 and ISTSat-1
At 16:00 local time in Kourou, French Guiana (21:00 CEST), the deafening roar of engines marked the successful first launch of ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket! Blasting off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, this Ariane 6 carried a group of experiments, deployers and small satellites to space, including two CubeSats from ESA Academy’s Fly Your Satellite! programme: ISTSat-1 and 3Cat-4. These two CubeSats were designed, built and tested by university students with guidance from ESA experts.
A nailbiting wait followed the launch, as the students and their ESA mentors awaited the confirmation of separation that would tell them that their satellites had been successfully deployed. That moment came around an hour after liftoff, and the cheers from the students could almost be heard from orbit! Years of hard work had been rewarded in spectacular fashion, and history had been made.
Access the video
"We are thrilled to congratulate the ISTSat-1 and 3Cat-4 student teams on their incredible achievement with the successful launch of their CubeSats on the historic first launch of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket. Their hard work and commitment, from design to testing, integration, and launch, have truly been remarkable. We also extend our gratitude to Instituto Superior Técnico and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya for their vital support." said Hugo Maree, Head of the ESA Education Office. "The Fly Your Satellite! programme has been instrumental in preparing these students for the next phase of their career. They will go on to join a highly skilled workforce that will drive the future of the European space sector to new heights.”
ISTSat-1 is now officially the first-ever CubeSat built by a university student team in Portugal (Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon) launched into space. Within the tiny satellite, all subsystems, except for the solar panels and antenna deployment mechanism, are fully self-developed by the student team – a testament to the project’s primary mission to give students hands-on experience in a real space mission. While in orbit, the CubeSat’s scientific mission will demonstrate an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) aircraft detection technology to track and characterise the transponder signals of aircraft over remote areas.
“We are super, super happy about launching our satellite. It’s the perfect reward for every student that worked on the project since 2012, and a great motivation for new Portuguese students interested in space engineering!“ - ISTSat-1 Team
3Cat-4 (“cube-cat-four”) has been developed by students working in the UPC NanoSat Lab, an initiative from Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. In addition to its main educational mission that has brought ambition to the students involved from various fields, 3Cat-4 aims to show the capacity of CubeSats to provide Earth Observation (EO) service – a role typically reserved for larger satellites. 3Cat-4 will measure important climate variables using their Flexible Microwave Payload-1, which includes three EO instruments in a single subsystem and was developed by the students entirely in-house.
“It is a great satisfaction to see how high the hard work of these cohorts of responsible students has arrived. If the difficult is done immediately, the impossible has taken a bit longer: 7 years!” - Adriano Camps, 3Cat-4 Endorsing Professor
Following ISTSat-1 and 3Cat-4's deployment to orbit, the student teams are now working to establish contact with the satellites. Once this acquisition of signal (AOS) is received, the next phases of their missions will begin.
Congratulations to all involved in this momentous event!
To stay up-to-date with the latest developments and opportunities, please visit the Fly Your Satellite! Programme page.
For Portuguese students interested participating in additional CubeSat projects, check out this national initiative by the Portuguese Space Agency.
Contacts
Joost Vanreusel, Head of the ESA Academy Programme - joost.vanreusel@esa.int
Alex Kinnaird, ESA Academy, Fly Your Satellite! Programme Coordinator- alexander.kinnaird@esa.int
