First Russian Private Earth Remote Sensing Satellite

ISC Kosmotras successfully launched a cluster of small spacecraft by the RS-20 rocket (Dnepr) on 20 June 2014. The first Russian private Earth remote sensing satellite from the company Sputnix, named TabletSat-Aurora, also was sent into its target orbit. The data from the microsatellite will be received by a ScanEx UniScan ground network for use in commercial, scientific, educational and environmental projects.

Alexander Serkin, CEO of ISC Kosmotras, called the launch an important event. For 20 years they have been working with globally renowned companies and spacecraft developers, the majority of which are private ones. And they are now proud to have been given this opportunity to participate in the implementation of a private space project in Russia, Serkin added.

After its ascent into orbit, subsystems developed by the company will be tested. The first signal has already been received from TabletSat-Aurora. The spacecraft weighs 26kg ad has a minimum designed life expectancy of 1 year. The spacecraft is equipped with a high-accuracy tri-axial orientation and stabilisation system and an optical camera for Earth imaging from space, with a resolution of 15m per pixel.

The company considers TabletSat-Aurora as a universal platform for placement of scientific and commercial applications payloads, clarified Stanislav Karpenko, CTO of Sputnix. The satellite platform and the majority of systems and equipment were developed by the company, with financial support from the Skolkovo and ISC Kosmotras.

In 2012 Sputnix, a daughter company of ScanEx, became a resident of Skolkovo and received a grant from the Skolkovo space cluster. It took 8 months to develop and prepare a microsatellite for the launch. The aim is to create a cluster of small spacecraft and ultra-high detail imaging satellites, said Andrey Potapov, Sputnix.