ISTSat-1, the first satellite entirely built in Portugal, celebrates its first anniversary in orbit this month. At 7 p.m. (UTC) on 9 July, it will also mark one year since the successful maiden flight of the Ariane 6 rocket, which carried the first Portuguese university satellite, developed by students and professors from Instituto Superior Técnico.
“It was an important milestone for IST, the Portuguese Academy, Oeiras, and certainly for the space sector in Portugal”, argues Rui Rocha, a Técnico professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DEEC), a researcher at Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), and director and one of the founders of IST NanosatLab.
Over the past 365 days in space, ISTSat-1 has flown over Técnico – Oeiras campus approximately 1,460 times and has orbited the Earth about 5,500 times. Positioned 580 km from Earth in low orbit, its mission is to decode messages sent by aircraft to test the ability to detect the presence of aircraft in remote areas. Throughout this year, the team has been overcoming an unexpected challenge. “Due to issues with the radio’s connection to the telemetry transmission antennas, receiving signals from orbit proved to be problematic. The team had to seek solutions to improve ISTSat-1’s operating conditions on Earth”, explains Rui Rocha.
“Continuous problem-solving is what sets Técnico students, professors and researchers apart. They deserve commendation not only for having a satellite in orbit for a year but also for continually pushing boundaries to achieve its objectives”, says Rogério Colaço, the President of Técnico.
Communication with ISTSat-1 remains operational, and efforts to resolve earlier communication issues have included the construction of large antennas, which were successfully recovered after being subjected to storms in 2024, as well as the establishment of additional ground stations. “By relying on the collaboration of the amateur radio community, various initiatives were undertaken by the team and their amateur radio friends. As a result of these efforts, and as soon as the weather permitted, the team was able to activate all the onboard sub-systems and confirm that the satellite could operate in its nominal mode”, explained Rui Rocha.
The batteries of the satellite, built at Instituto Superior Técnico, are functioning properly. The data transmitted from the satellite, which has been decoded using a cluster of Yagi antennas (directional antennas designed to capture electromagnetic waves) installed at the Oeiras campus, confirms that the satellite is not spinning out of control in space.
“This anniversary marks the milestone we’ve all been eagerly anticipating: the successful conditions to test the ADS-B message decoder. This brings us closer to initiating the mission for which the satellite was designed: programming the ADS-B signal collection zones from aircraft and gathering this data for analysis on Earth”, said Rui Rocha.
On 9 July, Instituto Superior Técnico will celebrate the first anniversary of ISTSat-1 with an event attended by the team responsible for the satellite’s launch, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Técnico – Oeiras campus. Following a warm welcome to the guests, the President of Técnico, Rogério Colaço, and the Mayor of Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, will deliver welcoming remarks. This will be followed by a speech from Rui Rocha, one of the project managers, reviewing the satellite’s first year in orbit and engaging in a discussion about the future, featuring participation from LusoSpace and the Portuguese Space Agency.
The project had the financial support of Instituto Superior Técnico, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento (INESC-ID), Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT), and the Mechanical Engineering Institute (IDMEC). A team of researchers at the Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR-Lisboa) and several companies linked to the sector also participated in the project. The NanosatLab consortium is led by INESC-ID and coordinated by Rui Rocha (IT) and Gonçalo Tavares (INESC-ID).
In the Media:
Nanossatélite de universidade portuguesa cumpre um ano de atividade (Notícias ao minuto)
Um ano depois, o primeiro nanossatélite português continua em órbita e operacional (SIC Notícias)
