At 4h59, the entire PicSat scientific team was assembled at the Meudon site of the Paris Observatory to witness in real time the launch by the Indian launcher PSLV of the C40 mission, carrying their nanosatellite.
At 5h20, PicSat, together with about thirty other CubeSats, was orbited at an altitude of 505 km from the Earth.
The whole team breathed a sigh of relief. Each phase of the launch was executed perfectly, followed by a nominal orbit.
At 9h30, the scientists were eagerly awaiting in the Lyot building, in a locale set up as a control center, the first transit of PicSat above Europe. They received the first signal in the 435,525 MHz frequency band , followed by others at 10 second intervals. PicSat also responds to signals that are sent to it. Communication, thanks to the antenna installed in the Lyot building, was established.
This first passage was the joy of all the radio amateurs worldwide. A certain number of them tweet their own detection of the first “bip”, followed by the exchanges with the ground-based team.
The second passage of the satellite took place at 11h15, and a third at 12h45. Finally, the team announced that the satellite was in good health. From this point of view, this was a resounding success. Developed in just three years at a low cost, PicSat was not submitted to the usual tests required by space missions.
From their control center, the scientists will in the days to come stabilize the satellite. Once stabilized, it will be possible to point PicSat towards the star Beta Pictoris and so start to monitor its brightness.
Consult : the Twitter account @IamPicSat
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