Astronomy - News

11.01.2024

Lift-off!

SpIRIT nanosatellite launches aboard SpaceX rocket

On Friday, December 1 at 10:19 a.m. PT, a Falcon 9 launched the Korea 425 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Press release dated December 4^th, 2023

The SpIRIT nano-satellite has been launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on 2 December 2023 at 05:19am (AEDT) and has entered a polar orbit 513 km above Earth.
SpIRIT is the first of a network of seven nano-satellites called the HERMES Scientific Pathfinder Constellation that will be completed in the next few years. The University of Tübingen is one of the key members of the collaboration.
The HERMES Constellation is led by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

SpIRIT was developed by a consortium led by the University of Melbourne and the Italian Space Agency, and comprising the University of Tübingen, whose hardware contribution has been key to enable the operation of the satellite.

Render image of the SpIRIT nanosatellite in orbit with solar arrays and radiators deployed.

SpIRIT is designed to fly in low Earth orbit for two years in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit, where the satellite travels from north to south over the poles and is tuned so it always faces the sun at a similar angle. After the launch, the team will spend about four months testing and commissioning the nanosatellite in the extreme conditions of space before scientific operations can begin.

The main goal is to detect then most powerful transient events in the Universe like the Gamma Ray Bursts. When the full HERMES constellation will operate, it will be a key mission for the new era of multi-messenger astrophysics.

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