These spacecraft are four cubesats each with a mass of 1 kg and intended for technology demonstrations. They were launched as secondary payloads on an Indian PSLV rocket from Sriharikota on 2009 September 23 at 06:21 UT. UWE 2, a German cubesat, is intended to demonstrate a new Attitude Determination and Control System and the use of GPS on a cubesat; BEESAT, a German cubesat, will verify the behavior of new micro-reaction wheels for picosatellites. ITU-PSAT1, a Turkish cubesat, will examine the performance of an on-board passive stability system it will also carry a camera. SWISSCUBE, a Swiss cubesat, will take optical airglow measurements validating the use of low-cost off-the-shelf detectors for these observations.
Alternate Names
35932 = 2009-051B = SwissCube
35933 = 2009-051C = BeeSat
35934 = 2009-051D = University of Wurzburg Experimental satellite 2
35935 = 2009-051E = ITU-pSAT1
Facts in Brief
Launch Date: 2009-09-23
Launch Vehicle: PSLV-CA
Launch Site: Sriharikota, India