The web NASA echoes shoot Humsat built by University of Vigo.
Kosmotras launched a Dnepr rocket from Dombarovsky on Thursday, carrying the United Arab Emirates’ DubaiSat-2, thirty one other satellites – including Peru’s first satellite and the Humsat of the Vigo University– and one attached payload. The mission set new records for the most payloads carried into orbit by a single rocket and the smallest satellite ever launched, following lift off at 13:10:16 local time (07:10 UTC).
The Dnepr launch comes less than thirty hours after an Orbital Sciences Minotaur I rocket placed 29 satellites and two attached payloads into orbit, breaking a record which had previously been held by the Dnepr since 2007.
Although Thursday’s launch carried more payloads than the Minotaur, less of them were to be deployed directly; twenty three satellites were tasked with separating from the Dnepr itself, with the remainder being subsatellites to be deployed from other spacecraft on the mission.
ICube-1 is a single-unit CubeSat built and operated by Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology. Primarily intended to give its developers experience of building and operating a satellite, ICube is expected to operate for three months. The Humanitarian Satellite Network Demonstrator, or HumSat-D, was developed by Spain’s University of Vigo.
A one kilogram spacecraft, it is expected to demonstrate technology for the planned Humanitarian Satellite Network – a constellation of store-and-forward communications satellites to provide a link to areas of the world without access to more developed systems.
