✅ 4th successful launch of the year with 3 customer satellites:
🛰️ Poland’s 1st domestic SAR satellite
🛰️ World’s 1st quantum key distribution CubeSat
🛰️ World’s 1st neutrino detector in space
Following a successful launch on May 3rd, NanoAvionics' mission control established contact with all satellites under its operations on the first attempt.
This continued our 100% first-contact success rate and brought the total number of NanoAvionics-built satellites launched to more than 60.
Satellites aboard the CAS500-2 using NanoAvionics satellite buses include:
🛰️ Eycore-1: an all-European Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, built by
@Eycore_PL and featuring our flight-proven MP42 microsatellite bus.
It will validate Eycore’s X-band SAR payload and lay the groundwork for an all-European, military-grade SAR solution that will provide governments with rapid, sovereign access to sub-meter, day-night, all-weather imagery.
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🛰️ QUBE-II: the world's first quantum key distribution (QKD) CubeSat, built on our 8U CubeSat bus, by the
@BMFTR_bund Quantum Communication initiative.
It will demonstrate the first-ever quantum key exchange between a CubeSat and a ground station, setting the stage for cost-effective, unhackable global communications using a compact, lightweight optical terminal.
Zentrum für Telematik Würzburg (ZfT) is the QUBE-II satellite system responsible, while
@OHB_SE coordinates the overall system, including payloads from Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR),
@LMU_Muenchen, and
@UniFAU.
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🛰️ SNAPPY: the world’s first space-based neutrino detector, built on our 3U CubeSat bus, carrying a
@WichitaState University-designed prototype neutrino detector.
It will prove the detector can operate in space and measure background rates relevant to solar neutrino detection via a double-pulsed signature that cleanly identifies true solar neutrino interactions. The mission will gather critical data to support future solar neutrino research closer to the sun.
Learn more about the missions on our blog below.
Launch and deployment images: SpaceX