First Slovak Satellite to Be Carried into Orbit by Indian Rocket

Bratislava, June 22 (TASR) – The first Slovak satellite should be launched into Earth’s orbit on Friday, being carried by an Indian rocket due to blast off from the Sriharikota cosmodrome, TASR learnt on Thursday.

The Slovak satellite named skCUBE will be one of 31 satellites carried by the Indian rocket. This will take place after ten years since the first plans for skCUBE saw the light of day, five years of development, production and testing, and 18 months of waiting for the launch.

“If everything goes well and the rocket with our and other satellites is launched at 5:59 a.m., all cubesats will be released 17-23 minutes later. The skCUBE space mission will thus begin,” Jakub Kapus, vice-chairman of the Slovak Organisation for Space Activities (SOSA), said at a press conference.

“I’m very nervous, I probably won’t even be breathing during the launch,” said SOSA chair Michaela Musilova, adding that “space doesn’t allow for any mistakes”.

The Slovak satellite features a very long-wave receiver to measure various phenomena in the magnetosphere, test the effects of radiation on individual technology components and carry out experiments in radio communication. Last but not least, the satellite should also take images of the planet. Data from skCUBE will be freely available.