Foresail-1p deployed, mission started

Aalto University's latest satellite, Foresail-1p, was launched into space on a Falcon 9 rocket on 28 November. However, it was not released into space immediately because the satellite was inside the Italian company D-Orbit’s satellite carrier and was only released yesterday, Tuesday 9 December, to operate independently in space.

The Transporter-15 launch included1 40 satellites, and if they had all been released separately right after the rocket reached space, the result would have been a chaotic and possibly dangerous cluster for the satellites. Some satellites also need to be placed in slightly different orbits than the rocket could deliver in a rideshare configuration.

The solution is a so-called OTV, Orbit Transfer Vehicle, which carries its customer satellites farther away from the rocket and releases them into space later. The vehicle can also change its orbit, for example by climbing to a higher altitude or changing the orbit’s inclination.

The Italian company D-Orbit is one of the companies responsible for satellite orbit transfers, and Aalto University purchased the launch service through it. On SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-15 mission, the company had two OTV vehicles carrying a total of eight satellites.

Foresail-1p was released into space just before noon on 9 December, and the satellite began operating shortly after release. The satellite’s signal was soon received at the Otaniemi ground station as well, and in addition ground stations around the world are confirming in real time that the satellite is transmitting normally.

Aalto University has now two operational satellites in orbit, as the Suomi 100 satellite, launched in 2018, continues its mission obseving the aurora-related radio waves.