Launch of SSETI Express delayed

The launch of SSETI Express, the first spacecraft designed and built by European students, including radio amateurs, has been delayed by a month. The craft was due to take off on 25 August from Plesetsk in Russia but is now set to launch in late September. Funded by the European Space Agency, the space ship will take up an Earth Sun synchronous orbit 686km above the Earth.

Built in just 18 months by 15 teams of students from 10 universities in nine countries, the 62kg craft will deploy three tiny 1kg pico-satellites in a first such operation in space history. The Express will also function as a fully operational satellite, taking pictures of the earth and providing a radio transponder for the global amateur radio community.

Take-off of the craft will mark the end of a long and difficult journey for the students. They had to work many evenings and weekends to ensure that the project remained on course. Numerous tests also had to be undertaken before the craft could be deemed space worthy.

On 27 June, the craft was declared ready for flight. As student Karl Kaas Laursen says, “we will be waiting to see if we have built something that can survive anything – the launch and the harsh space environment. SSETI Express will do it, just watch...”

Laursen is one of three students and one radio amateur (Graham Shirville of the UK) who will be monitoring the launch from Plesetsk. The rest of the SSETI Express team will watch a live transmission of the launch at specially organised events in their home countries.

The European Space Agency is planning follow-up student space projects to the SSETI Express, including the European Student Earth Orbiter (due to be launched in 2008) and the European Student Moon Orbiter (to take off sometime between 2010 and 2012).

Source: GB2RS News - Courtesy of the RSGB

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