During the early morning hours on Thursday 3 September, an Ariane rocket replete with Luxembourgish payload took, off in Kourou.
Along with 52 other satellites, Esail, a satellite meant for monitoring maritime, was at last sent on its journey. This has been a project that has faced many challenges over the past few months.
Starting off with only a drawing, 20 individuals have been working on this satellite at Luxspace’s headquarters in Betzdorf for five years - within a few months it became reality.
Luxspace is responsible for both the assembly and the launch of the satellite. The operator is a Canadian company, with another partner being the European Space Agency.
Launch problems
The actual launch date had to be rescheduled a number of times and in fact the satellite had been ready to be sent to orbit in Kourou last August.
However, as Arianespace had issues with their own rocket, launching was postponed to 2020. Then came coronavirus and a global lockdown, meaning that took some detailed scheduling in order to lock down a definite launch date.
New ESA technology in usage
The European Space Agency tested a new system for the first time during the launching of the satellite. Their goal is to make flights to space more effective, in order to send more satellites at a time. Over 50 micro-satellites could thus be transported to their respective positions.
RTL has been following the evolution and construction of this satellite over the years and in the coming weeks will be broadcasting a documentary about this project's progress.
