The Portuguese nanosatellite ISTSat-1, built by students and professors of the Instituto Superior Tecnica (IST), was launched into space on Tuesday during the maiden flight of Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket.
The launch from the European space base in Kourou, French Guiana, is scheduled for between 19:00 and 23:00 (Lisbon time).
The Santa Maria teleport in the Azores, operated by Thales Edisoft Portugal, will be the first station to provide data from the rocket, whose maiden flight “marks the return of European operational access to space.”
The rocket will carry ISTSat-1, the first nanosatellite developed by a Portuguese university institution and the third Portuguese satellite to be sent into space after the Eros MH-1 nanosatellite in March and the PoSat-1 microsatellite in 1993, in which the companies participated.
ISTSat-1 will be used to test a new decoder for messages sent by aircraft that will allow them to be detected in remote areas, and to evaluate the feasibility of using nanosatellites to obtain aircraft status signals such as speed and altitude for air safety purposes.
The nanosatellite, a “cube” costing around 270,000 euros, will be located 580 kilometers from Earth, above the International Space Station, the astronauts’ “home” and laboratory, and will send back its first data about a month after the start of the flight.
It will remain in orbit for five to 15 years before reentering the atmosphere.
Along with ISTSat-1, other satellites and scientific equipment from foreign institutes, companies and space agencies will be sent.
Ariane 6, which made its maiden flight four years later and cost €4.5 billion, will succeed Ariane 5, which made its final flight in July 2023.
The European Space Agency (ESA), of which Portugal has been a member since 2000, plans a second launch, this time commercial, of a new line of European rockets by the end of the year. Fourteen flights are planned over the next two years.
It is with this type of rocket that ESA intends to send the Plato space probe in 2026, which will “photograph” thousands of stars and search for planets similar to Earth. The Portuguese scientific team of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences is participating in the mission.
To mark the launch date of ISTSat-1, the IST Oeiras centre is promoting the debate “How to prepare the next generation for a new era in space?” and is signing a protocol with the local municipality and CEiiA – Design and Development Centre to create a space centre in the Oeiras Valley, a centre dedicated to space activities.
Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Fernando Alexandre and Secretary of State for Science Ana Paiva attend the launch ceremony of Ariane 6 at the Oeiras Higher Technical Institute.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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