Read the story from Sternula, one of the start-ups that will pitch during the ESA Commercialisation Days: Transportation event.
On the morning of January 3, 2023, a team of engineers from Sternula, GateHouse SatCom, Space Inventor, Aalborg University, and Satlab arrived at Sternula’s headquarters in central Aalborg. They were gathered for the mission of getting contact with the Sternula-1 satellite as soon as possible after its launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher on the same afternoon. The team had been working together for more than 3 years to design and build the satellite, including special-purpose hardware and software. Everything underwent strict and thorough testing, with everyone having been specifically trained on his/her role for this critical project milestone.
In parallel, Danish media had their eyes on the project, since it was the first ever launch of a Danish commercial satellite, and Sternula was about to become Denmark’s first commercial satellite operator. The two big national TV stations, Danish Radio and TV2, had already arranged for live transmission teams to be on site to cover the event in Aalborg. The mission of Sternula’s non-technical staff, including Sternula’s CEO, Lars Moltsen, was to keep attention away from the technical team to give them optimal performing conditions. This was achieved by setting up a special event for media, investors, customers, partners, and other guests in collaboration with Port of Aalborg. The event, which had close to 100 guests, centred around a live transmission by SpaceX of the launch and later the live transmission of satellite deployment in space.
The critical step for the engineers back in the Sternula’s office was to get radio contact with the satellite. It was possible to make an attempt every time the satellite passed our ground stations in Svalbard and Aalborg, approximately every 1,5 hours (the time it takes for the satellite to travel around the planet). The SpaceX rocket was launched at exactly 15:56 CET according to plan and the satellite was successfully deployed from the launch vehicle at 17:02 CET. After two unsuccessful attempts (probably due to inaccurate position estimates of the satellite), the team successfully connected with Sternula-1 at 20:15 CET while flying over Aalborg. It was possible to communicate with the spacecraft and see that temperature and tumbling were good. Around midnight the mission was successfully ended, and everyone could go home and get ready for the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) activities during the following months.
The Sternula-1 satellite was launched as an activity in the MARIOT project, which is an R&D collaboration among six Danish partners: Sternula, Aalborg University, Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), GateHouse SatCom, Satlab, and Space Inventor. It has been supported by funding from Innovation Fund Denmark.
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