Skolkovo resident satellite-maker Sputnix is preparing to send two educational satellites into space next week to study space weather.
The SiriusSats will be delivered to the ISS by Progress MS-09, due to launch on July 10. Photo: Roscosmos.
The nanosatellites, SiriusSat-1 and SiriusSat-2, weighing just 1.3. kilograms each, are due to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 10 by the Progress MS-09 spacecraft together with its main payload. They will then be launched into free flight in August during a planned spacewalk by cosmonauts, according to Sputnix.
The cubesat-format satellites were developed and created by students of the Sirius educational centre in Sochi for gifted children, together with specialists from Sputnix and the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, using the Orbicraft-Pro platform developed by Sputnix.
Sputnix has already set up a station for controlling the satellites in its office at the Skolkovo Technopark, and has set up a tracking antenna on the roof of the Technopark for this purpose.
“The station should provide a reliable connection with the two satellites once they are launched into free flight around Earth in August,” the company wrote on its Facebook page.
Sputnix's "Zavitok" (Coil) tracking antenna erected on the roof of the Skolkovo Technopark. Photo: Sputnix.
Space weather such as solar wind can affect technology on Earth such as radio and radar, as well as satellites themselves that people rely on for weather forecasting and GPS.
The SiriusSats have undergone additional testing at the Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia ahead of their launch, which is scheduled for 00:51 Moscow time on July 10 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Progress MS-09 carrying the satellites to the ISS will also take fuel, food, water, equipment for experiments and other cargo, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said in a statement.
Sputnix launched its first satellite, the TabletSat Aurora – Russia’s first privately developed satellite – four years ago, having built it using the TabletSat universal microsatellite platform developed using a grant from the Skolkovo Foundation.