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Polish students’ satellite launched into orbit

PR dla Zagranicy
Tomasz Ferenc 04.12.2018 14:30
A satellite designed by Warsaw students to cut down on space junk has been launched into orbit.
Image: SpaceX-Imagery/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative CommonsImage: SpaceX-Imagery/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons

The satellite was designed by students from the Warsaw University of Technology. It was sent into space on Monday on board a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, US.

The satellite will be used to test a so-called deorbitation sail system, akin to a drag parachute, which it is carrying. The mechanism will be released after the satellite completes its mission.

By increasing drag, the sail slows the satellite, causing it to descend to earth and burn up in the atmosphere, rather than remaining in orbit and becoming another piece of junk floating around the planet.

Dominik Roszkowski, one of the coordinators of the project, said that on Tuesday morning “the satellite was sending signals from above Poland.”

“The data sent by the satellite points to the fact that it is fully operational and that the start of the mission was done by the book,” Roszkowski added.

The PW-Sat2 is the second satellite designed by students from the Warsaw University of Technology that has entered orbit and the fourth commercial Polish satellite in space.

(tf/pk)

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