KOSTKA Satellite Successfully Launched into Earth's Orbit

The first Czech satellite designed and built entirely by students has reached Earth's orbit. The KOSTKA satellite, developed by the YSpace student team from Brno University of Technology (BUT), launched today aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-17 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The KOSTKA satellite has been successfully launched into Earth's orbit. | Photo: Jakub Ryba

At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC) of BUT, members of the YSpace team gathered to watch the launch together with their colleagues, academics, project partners, and members of the media. For the students, the moment of launch marked the symbolic culmination of several years of work, during which they designed, built, integrated, and tested the satellite. The launch could be followed live via SpaceX's webcast. The team also shared the launch on its Instagram profile. A recording of the launch and further information are available on the project website cubesat.cz.

"Watching the launch of a rocket carrying a satellite we had worked on for years was an incredible feeling. But an even more powerful moment came when KOSTKA first reached out to us from orbit — that was when we knew everything was working exactly as it should," said YSpace team leader Šimon Sloboda.

"When we launched the Space Applications study programme four years ago, we couldn't even have imagined that our students would design, build, and send their own satellite into orbit in such a short time. That makes me all the more delighted that KOSTKA is among the first student projects at BUT to genuinely connect several faculties. It is exactly these interdisciplinary projects that give students experience they would gain only with difficulty in regular coursework, and they show the potential we have at our university," said Michal Kubíček, Vice-Dean for External and Internal Relations at FEEC.

The first Czech satellite designed and built by students is in space. The project is the work of the YSpace team from BUT. | Photo: Jakub Ryba

The Journey into Orbit

About two minutes after liftoff, the rocket passed through the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure and its first stage separated. The second stage then ignited and headed for the target sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately 600 kilometres.

Fifty-eight minutes after launch, a spring mechanism deployed KOSTKA. At that moment, the mission clock started and the on-board computer booted up. After another hour of waiting, the antenna extended, and before noon the ground station on the roof of FEEC successfully received the first data from the satellite.

KOSTKA will orbit the Earth roughly every 95 minutes, that is, about fifteen times a day. It will therefore come within range of the Brno ground station during two to four brief passes each day. From there, the students will monitor the satellite's status and receive data from orbit.

Over the coming days, the team will verify KOSTKA's hardware and software, and no sooner than a month from now it will begin the mission itself. During the mission, it will measure UHF radio interference across its footprint, transmit a radio beacon, serve as a digital repeater (digipeater) for the amateur radio community, and downlink telemetry data to ground stations around the world.

The KOSTKA project represents a significant milestone in Czech student space activities. Beyond its technological contribution, it has allowed students to gain experience developing space systems according to the standards used in the European space industry and to build on the programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA). The YSpace team is already preparing its next mission — the CIMER satellite carrying a biological payload, which ESA has selected for its Fly Your Satellite! Design Booster 2 programme.