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First Polish scientific satellite is in orbit and fully operational!

czokletmuss

By czokletmuss
in Science & Spaceflight

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czokletmuss

czokletmuss

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On 21 November 2013 at 7:10:11 UTC time (8:10:11 CEST -Central European time CET) Russian Dnepr rocket will reach low Earth orbit with the First Polish Scientific Satellite BRITE-PL "Lem". Dnepr rocket will be launched from an underground silo in Yasny military base on the southern Urals. The Ministry of Defense of Russia is responsible for the rocket launching. Polish satellite BRITE-PL "Lem" is launched on a contract basis signed by the Polish consortium of the BRITE project through Space Flight Laboratory (designer of the BRITE satellites) and Ukrainian-Russian company Kosmotras. The Polish part of the BRITE project Consortium consists of: Centrum Astronomiczne PAN im. Mikołaja Kopernika and Centrum Badań Kosmicznych PAN.

Source (and more photos): http://www.brite-pl.pl/index_en.html

And we have confirmation that it's fully operational:

Godzinę i 38 minut po starcie rakiety Dniepr, podczas pierwszego przelotu satelity nad Europą, został nawiązany kontakt z "Lemem". Było to pierwsze techniczne połączenie z satelitą, nawiązane pomimo ograniczonych możliwości łączności, głównie ze względu na nie najlepsze parametry przelotu (np.niska elewacja). W czasie 12 minut łączności wysłano do satelity komendę inicjującą włączenie komputera pokładowego, odebrano pierwszą telemetrię, aby ocenić ogólny stan satelity i jego podsystemów (tzw.housekeeping) oraz załadowano oprogramowanie aplikacyjne do komputera pokładowego.

Quick translation:

One hour and 38 minutes since the Dnepr liftoff, the contact with "Lem" has been established during its passing above Europe. It was the first contact with the satelite, succesful despite limited conditions. During 12 minutes long contact satellite has received commands initilizing on-board computer, the first telemetry readings has been downloaded to evaluate the condition of the probe and its subsystems (so called "housekeeping") and the additional software has been uploaded to the satellite's computer.

The satellite is named after Stanisław Lem:

Stanisław Lem (Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf ˈlɛm] ( listen); 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies.[2] He is known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has been made into a feature film three times. In 1976 Theodore Sturgeon said that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world.[3] In 1996, Lem was the recipient of the prestigious Polish national award, the Order of the White Eagle.[4]

His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and humanity's place in the universe. They are sometimes presented as fiction, but others are in the form of essays or philosophical books. Translations of his works are difficult due to passages with elaborate word formation, alien or robotic poetry, and puns.

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Edited by czokletmuss
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czokletmuss

czokletmuss

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Second. You had one on the first Vega launch.

Of course it is, what a silly typo of mine - it's the first scientific satellite. The first one ever was indeed launched last year - I think I even created a thread for it too, before the forum purge.

This is great. Congrats to Poland! :)
It looks hardly bigger than a cubesat. Congrats anyway :)

First nanosat, and then the world! :D

That's cool.

A bunch of mico satellites went up today a Minotaur rocket launched 29 micro satellites today too.

How many where on the Dnepr rocket?

Twenty six?

Is it in a Polar orbit? (I just had to, forgive me! Please!)

Nope, but I'm sure it'll be able to go as far as to Pol :P

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