This Cube Isn't Cheese

It's official — The date of the first ever Swisscube satellite launch is planned for next Wednesday September 23 according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO); liftoff is expected at 8:23 a.m., Swiss time.

Switzerland's first satellite, named SwissCube, will travel on the PSLV (C14 mission) from Satish Dhawan Center near Chennai. This picosatellite (10x10x10 cm3, 1 kg) has been developed at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in collaboration with several other swiss engineering schools, universities and private industry; the University of Neuchâtel and five universities of applied sciences in western and German-speaking Switzerland. RUAG Space provided extensive support to the students during the construction of the satellite. About 200 students participated in the elaboration, fabrication and tests of the satellite.

The SwissCube scientific mission will focus on the observation of the airglow phenomena, a photoluminescence of the atmosphere occurring at approximately 100 km altitude. The objectives are thus to observe oxygen emission in order to characterize the airglow intensity as a function of the observation angle, the altitude, the latitude and the local time. The minimum science duration is 3 months, with an extended science mission of duration up to one year. This project further validates the successful collaboration between India and Switzerland.

Source: SatNews