On Monday, March 22, the Soyuz 2.1a rocket successfully launched and also brought the Slovak CubeSAT GRBAlpha into orbit. The name of this CubeSAT, measuring 10 x 10 x 10 cm, is an abbreviation of the words Gamma Ray Bursts and Alpha. This describes its mission, which is to detect the gamma flashes.
GRBAlpha thus builds on the success of the first Slovak satellite skCUBE, and is also the first step for the planned fleet of CAMELOT nanosatellites for measuring and investigating transients.
Data collection and communication with the satellite is provided also by the ground station of the BDSAT project. This is the project prepared by the BD SENSORS Space Division in Buchlovice. Cubesat BDSAT will aim to measure the pressure in open space conditions. This is a great opportunity to test all BDSAT communication subsystems, because GRBAlpha has a similar radio, the same antennas and software on the ground station as the upcoming BDSAT.
The launch of the BDSAT satellite is planned for 2022.
German
