GAUSS announces successful satellite launch
We are glad to announce that today, November 21, 2013, at 07:10:11 UTC Unisat-5 was launched from Dombarovsky Cosmodrome at Yasny, Russia, on board a RS-20 rocket from ISC Kosmotras.
The spacecraft was inserted into a near-SSO orbit with an altitude of 634 km at 07:25:48 UTC. Ground operation stations in Italy and Spain have reported receiving data packets from the satellite indicating that the systems are functioning normally.
Unisat-5 is the first satellite designed, built and launched by G.A.U.S.S. Srl, a small Italian company created two years ago.
It is a microsatellite class spacecraft, having a mass of 28 kg. Its main feature, distinguishing it from other satellites of comparable size, is to be a platform for the release of smaller satellites in orbit, the first in the history of micro-satellites.
The satellites to be released are four CubeSats (10 cm cubes) and five PocketQubes (5 cm cubes), including the first Peruvian satellites ever, PUCP-Sat 1 and Pocket-PUCP.
The other satellites are ICUBE-1 (Pakistan, 1U CubeSat), Humsat-D (Spain, 1U CubeSat), Dove-4 (USA, 3U CubeSat), Eagle1 (USA, PocketQube), Eagle2 (USA, PocketQube), WREN (Germany, PocketQube), QBScout (USA, PocketQube).
PockeQubes will be flown for the first time in history.
Unisat-5 will transmit overall health status (battery and solar panels info), as well as attitude sensors data, back to any AMSAT radio operator who might want to connect.
Unisat-5 carries on board an artwork from the Italian artist Gaetano Porcasi to honour the memory of the Carabinieri corporal Gioacchino Crisafulli, killed by Mafia in Palermo on April 27, 1983 after having blocked a freight with drug.
For additional information related to the launch, contact us at info@gaussteam.com.
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