SpaceX rocket launches Hungarian satellite into space

The Budapest University of Technology’s (BME) fifth MRC-100 small satellite was launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s Transporter 8 mission on Monday from the Vandenberg Space Center in California, the university said on Tuesday.

The ION SCV-011 spacecraft carrying the BME satellite successfully separated from the main rocket in the eightieth minute of its ascent. The satellite platform of Italy’s D-Orbit is scheduled to put it into orbit in 7 days the earliest, the university said in a statement.

The university currently has so far notched up the most successful PocketQube category satellite missions in the world.

Once in orbit, MRC-100 will use solar panels to recharge its battery within 7-14 days and then it will start broadcasting, with reception and control at the ground stations on the roof of the BME E building and in Érd, outside Budapest.

MRC-100, which measures electromagnetic pollution, is the result of three years of joint work of the BME Broadband Communications and Electrical Engineering Department’s teachers, researchers and students, and was named in honour of the University Radio Club (MRC) which will be 100 years old in 2024.

The University of Szeged, Széchenyi Istvan University of Győr and the University of Debrecen also participated in the collaboration.

Featured image: illustration