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WOW! Two Hungarian satellites in space – beautiful photos, video
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They function perfectly well and were delivered in space by a rocket named Electron that was made by Rocket Lab, a US company. The SMOG-P and the ATL-1 are both small satellites, the former produced by Budapest University of Technology while the latter by a private corporation.
According to index.hu, the launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron was postponed one week ago because of technical reasons but at 9:22, today (Central European Time) the rocket was finally started from the Māhia peninsula in New-Zealand. Its goal was to deliver nine satellites into space: the Hungarian SMOG-P and ATL-1, a small Japanese satellite and a platform containing six satellites of the Alba Orbital, a Scottish satellite developing company.
This was the 10th mission of the Rocket Lab team thanks to which this is the second time ever that Hungarian satellites operate in space. The first time was in 2012 when a small satellite (MASAT-1), constructed in the Budapest University of Technology (BME),
was used in Earth orbit for 1062 days and worked perfectly
until its death.
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SMOG-P designed and built by the teachers and the students of BME is a small unit (1PQ, one PocketQube), 5×5×5 centimetres, a picosatellite. The project is a pioneer one since there has never been a successful picosat mission. The university’s team took part in the development of ATL-1, as well, but the business sector financed that project. The latter satellite is in the nano category (2 PQ) with 5×5×10 centimetres.
What a way to close out another year of Electron launches. A perfect mission + successful guided re-entry of stage 1 as we work towards reusable rockets. Congrats to @SpaceflightInc, @ALE_StarAle & @AlbaOrbital – we hope your satellites are enjoying their new home on orbit.🚀 pic.twitter.com/bnjCXrQZlS
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) December 6, 2019
Not long after noon did scientists in Japan message their Hungarian colleagues that they receive the radio transmission of both Hungarian satellites so it can be stated that