New Hungarian satellite presented at Rome research institute

A new Hungarian satellite developed by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics with financing from the Foreign Ministry has been completed and presented at an Italian Space Agency (ASI) research institute in Rome, Hungarian ambassador to Rome Ádám Zoltán Kovács said on Friday.

The Hungarian satellite named SMOG-1 will be loaded into the Italian-developed Unisat-7 satellite’s launch facility, Kovács said.

The main mission of the new satellite is to measure electromagnetic smog and it will also gauge the electronic effects of particles originating from the sun.

It is planned to be put into orbit in November, together with a CAS500-1 South Korean satellite, with the help of a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket from Baikonur, and it will be positioned 500 km from Earth, he added.

The SMOG-1 was presented at the Rome-based G.A.U.S.S. research institute, a co-institute of ASI and the La Sapienza University of Rome, Kovács said.

The Budapest university has already developed several similar satellites, and once SMOG-1 is orbiting Earth, there will be three Hungarian satellites operating in space, he added.