ALBA CLUSTER 2 LAUNCH
Alba Orbital successfully launched the Alba Cluster 2 mission from New Zealand onboard Rocket Lab’s 10th Electron flight (‘Running Out of Fingers’) on 6th December 2019 at 08:18 UTC. This mission served as Alba Orbital’s maiden flight, gaining valuable flight heritage to the AlbaPod deployment system dubbed by European Space Agency (ESA) as the ‘most advanced space proven PocketQube deployer’.
MISSION OVERVIEW
Onboard this rideshare mission were six spacecraft comprised of 5cm PocketQube pico-satellites from four different countries including SMOG-P (Hungary), ATL-1 (Hungary), NOOR-1A + 1B (USA), TRSI-1 (Germany) and FossaSat-1 (Spain).
SMOG-P: A 1p (5cm x 5cm x 5cm) PocketQube developed by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), carrying a spectrum analyzer for measuring man-made electromagnetic (electrosmog) pollution from space [Case Study].
ATL-1 (Advanced Technology of Laser 1): A Hungarian amateur radio 2p (5x5x10cm) PocketQube also developed by BME. ATL-1 served as an In-Orbit demonstration mission of special insulation materials under space conditions.
Like SMOG-P, ATL-1 carried a spectrum analyzer to measure electrosmog pollution [Case Study].
Integrated AlbaPod satellite deployer featuring (left to right) ATL-1, FossaSat-1, SMOG-P and TRSI-1.
NOOR-1A + NOOR-1B: Also known as Unicorn-2B and Unicorn-2C, NOOR-1A + 1B are 3P (5x5x15cm) PocketQubes developed by Alba Orbital on behalf of US based startup, Stara Space. These pico-satellites were launched as a proof of concept for an Inter-satellite links communications mission [Case Study].
TRSI-1: A 1p PocketQube developed by ACME AtronOmatic (MyRadar) launched as a radio waterfall experiment and to analyze Radio Frequency reception capabilities from Low-earth Orbit.
FOSSASAT-1: A Spanish 1p PocketQube developed by a non-profit association. FossaSat-1 served as an in-orbit technology demonstration mission for subsequent Internet of Things (IoT) missions.
If you would like to send your own spacecraft to orbit or are interested in a turn-key hosted payload mission with our Unicorn-2 platform, get in touch with the Alba Orbital launch team at contact@albaorbital.com 🚀