PW-Sat is a Polish CubeSat constructed by the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering of Warsaw University of Technology, in cooperation with the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and is the first Polish satellite. It was launched 13 February 2012 from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre aboard the maiden voyage of the Italian-built Vega rocket.

It was built to test experimental elastic solar cells, as well as an orbital decay technology consisting of a "tail" designed to speed re-entry. PW-Sat's mission is expected to last 1 year.

The PW-Sat project was created in 2004 when group of students from Warsaw University of Technology decided to build satellite compatible with CubeSat 1U standard. Initially planned for a 2007 launch, delays in the development of the Vega caused the mission to be postponed until 2012. The cost of the project is estimated to be 200,000 Polish zloty (63,205 USD), with funding coming from the university's budget, as well as from an agreement between Poland and the European Space Agency.

PW-Sat lifted off 13 February 2012, 10:00 UTC from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre (Kourou, French Guiana) aboard the maiden flight of the Vega rocket, together with LARES and ALMASat-1 satellites and 6 other CubeSats built by various European universities. It was deployed 1 hour 10 minutes into the flight from the P-POD-2 container, along with the ROBUSTA and MaSat-1 CubeSats.

The first signals from satellite were received around 12:10 UTC by radio amateurs. The first Polish reception of PW-Sat's signals came at 12:15 UTC by CAMK in Warsaw.

PW-Sat was intended to stay in orbit until 2013, when it would perform a destructive atmospheric reentry. However, the problems with satellite's energy budget delayed deployment of the tail. Tail deployment commands were sent from Earth on April and May 2012, but PW-Sat did not accept them.

Facts in Brief

Launch Date: 2012-02-13
Launch Vehicle: Vega
Launch Site: Kourou, French Guiana