Official confirmation – a small Polish-German educational satellite project was initiated

The idea to build a joint satellite with an educational purpose emerged a few months ago. Untill the last moments before the ILA 2012 air show in Berlin, negotiations on the details of this project were conducted. Finally, the project was accepted on the 12th of September 2012.

Sources told more details to the Kosmonauta.net’s representative at ILA 2012. The satellite will be composed of two parts. Once installed on orbit, these two parts will separate from each other and become independent satellites. Then, these two objects should conduct a series of in formation flights and approaches. It is possible that these satellites will perform a docking as well. The joined satellite should be similar in size to the BRITE-PL satellite, i.e. 25x25x25 cm. This is an initial value – the final dimensions might be different. The approximate launch date is not known yet.

The satellites are planned to be mainly designed and built by Polish and German universities. Each side will be responsible of one part of satellite. The two selected universities from Polish side are the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow and the Lodz University of Technology. The Polish side of this project will be coordinated by the CBK Institute. On the German side selected were the TU Berlin and Wurzburg University. The German part of the project will be coordinated by the DLR agency.

The project of two small formation flying educational satellites is a first for Poland. So far only one Polish satellite has been launched, and two more are in final construction stages. Moreover, this project will have a further positive impact on the development of the Polish space sector. In addition, it is important to note, that the work will be done by the universities, wherein future space sector staff will be educated.