Canada
Toaster Sized Satellite Launches In To Space
Toaster Sized Satellite Launches In To Space
The first in a series of small telescopes called nano-satellites designed at Canada’s University of Toronto were launched into space Monday from India. The program to design, build and launch the Bright Target Explorer, or BRITE satellites has been in development since 2001 and will be accompanied by the launch of Canada’s first military satellite from the same rocket.
Before the BRITE satellite program was launched, nano-satellites were thought to be too small to be of benefit for astronomy research; the BRITE satellites will now be used by scientists to study the brightest stars in space.
“We think this will open up a whole new market,” Cordell Grant, the Space Flight Laboratory’s lead mechanical engineer, said Monday.
“The space community has been a bit slow to believe that nano-satellites can do these kinds of missions.”
The launch of the satellites brings the first stage of the program funded by Austrian, Polish and Canadian agencies to a close.
The partnership between the European countries and the University of Toronto also saw one of the two BRITE telescopes launched constructed in Austria. Four more BRITE nano-satellites will be launched in 2014 through the same program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wyJMDi07ZKM
On The Web:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/02/25/minisatellite_designed_at_u_of_t_launched_into_space.html