UKube 1

Spacecraft nº:

UK spacecraft nº: 49

Launch data: Designation  40074 / 14037F Launch date  08 Jul 2014 - 15:58 UT Launch site  Baik, LC-31/6 Launch vehicle  Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M Mission  Technology Earth orbit: Perigee / Apogee  622 x 630 km Eccentricity   Inclination   98.38° Period  97.23 min

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• UKube 1 is a 3U CubeSat nanosat to test new technologies in space, the first satellite to be built in Scotland.
• The UK Space Agency’s pilot programme to design and launch a CubeSat - a miniature cube-shaped satellite that will allow the UK to test cutting-edge new technologies in space - is now well underway. In December 2010 the payload competition for the pilot mission, UKube-1, stimulated more than 20 high quality proposals from UK industry and academia, and from these the Space Agency selected 7 excellent proposals for further development. In March 2011 four payloads were finally selected to fly on UKube-1. These will be integrated onto the spacecraft, which measures just 10 cm × 10 cm × 34 cm, by Clyde Space. In addition UKube-1 will fly FunCube-2, an educational payload provided by AMSAT-UK, with the goal of enthusing and education young people about space, electronics, physics and radio. The FUNcube-2 payload is similar to the dedicated FUNcube 1 satellite.
• The winning payloads from the UK Space Agency's payload competition include the first GPS device aimed at measuring plasmaspheric space weather; a camera that will take images of the Earth and test the effect of radiation on space hardware, using a new generation of imaging sensor; an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of using cosmic radiation to improve the security of communications satellites and to flight test lower cost electronic systems; and a payload made up of 5 experiments that UK students and the public can interact with. UKUBE 1 is the most advanced 3U cubesat of its kind and will test several new technologies in space. The payloads flying on UKube-1 were selected following a competition run by the UK Space Agency to find the most innovative and creative payloads in the UK for a CubeSat. The competition received more than 20 payload submissions, several of which are also being considered for future missions.

Mission details:

• On Jul 8 2014 at 1558 UTC Russia launched a Soyuz-2-1B with a Fregat upper stage. The Blok-I stage entered a 183 x 198 km orbit; the Fregat then maneuvered to 191 x 813 km and 818 x 828 km x 98.8 deg, where it deployed the Meteor-M No. 2 weather satellite in an 0900LTDN SSO.
• The Fregat then restarted at 1736 UTC to enter a 638 x 825 km orbit, ejected a payload adapter frame and the Relek (MKA-FKI) satellite which will study relativistic electrons in the magnetosphere. A further burn to 635 x 635 km was followed by deployment at 1828 to 1832 UTC of the TDS-1, SkySat-2, DX-1, AISSat-2, and UKube-1 satellites.

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