The mission, overseen by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched from the Swedish Space Centre as part of the joint REXUS/BEXUS program of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Council (SNSB), went smoothly, according to Dr. William Crofts, Director of the Warwick Satellite Programme (www.warwick.ac.uk/cubesat) at the University of Warwick. “The launch went virtually on schedule, the conical front section deployed at the exact moment, the satellite was ejected, the communications system came online, and we received the data signals at our ground station.”.
He continued: “This is the first time that data has been successfully transmitted and received from the ESA/Rexus launch unit during its reentry, an impressive achievement. We now have a wealth of data to analyze and hope to estimate the satellite's speed using the Doppler shift of the radio signals.”.
Harwin's Datamate, Gecko, and M300 high-reliability connector systems are designed to withstand the harsh shock, vibration, and temperature conditions that satellites experience during launch and deployment. They are also suitable for other demanding applications, including commercial and defense aerospace, oil and gas exploration, robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles, motorsports, military vehicles, and other mission-critical projects. Harwin sponsors numerous university projects worldwide.
Crofts concludes: “In the future we hope to conduct a fully orbital launch of WUSAT-3 and there is a real possibility of being able to deploy WUSAT-3 from the International Space Station.”.
