Israel’s First University-Made Nanosatellite Launches Into Space
02/20/2021
Israel’s first nanosatellite to be completely designed, developed, assembled and tested by an Israeli university launched into space on Saturday night, Tel Aviv University shared.
TAU-SAT1 took off right on time at 7:36 p.m. Israel time from the NASA launch facility in Virginia.
“We have now joined the ‘Civil Space Revolution,’ called New Space, in which, unlike the Old Space, not only giant companies with huge budgets and large teams of engineers can build and launch satellites,” said Prof. Colin Price, head of the Porter Department of Environmental Studies at TAU. “We were able to prove that with the right planning, miniaturization and modulation of many technologies, small satellites can be built and launched into space within two years by students, at a fraction of the budget needed in the Old Space.”
TAU-SAT1 was completed about four months ago. It was then sent to Japan for pre-flight testing at the JAXA space agency. It arrived in Virginia two weeks ago. The nanosatellite, which is only 10 by 10 by 30 cm. and weighs less than 2.5 kg., entered space on a NASA resupply spacecraft destined for the International Space Station.
Read More: Jerusalem Post
