PW-Sat

PW-Sat is a series of Polish CubeSats designed and built by students at the Warsaw University of Technology in conjunction with the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering of Warsaw University of Technology, the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences, and the European Space Agency. As of 1 January 2024, there have been 2 PW-Sats with a third in development. The first PW-Sat was the first Polish artificial satellite which was launched 13 February 2012 from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre aboard Italian-built Vega launch vehicle during its maiden voyage. After their graduation, the team that developed the original PW-Sat have also worked to develop the subsequent missions, establishing a private company named PW-Sat to design and manufacturer the PW-Sats, all of which test novel deorbiting methods, with the overall goal of the program to develop solutions to space debris. The PW-Sat project was created in 2004 when group of students from Warsaw University of Technology decided to build satellite compatible with CubeSat 1U standard. Initially planned for a 2007 launch, delays in the development of the Vega caused the mission to be postponed until 2012. The cost of the project was estimated to be 200,000 Polish zloty (63,205 USD), with funding coming from the university's budget, as well as from an agreement between Poland and the European Space Agency. PW-Sat1 was a 10x10x10 cm cube with a mass of 1 kg. It is equipped with the following hardware: PW-Sat1 was launched on 13 February 2012, 10:00 UTC from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre (Kourou, French Guiana) aboard the maiden flight of the Vega rocket, together with LARES and ALMASat-1 satellites and 6 other CubeSats built by various European universities. It was deployed 1 hour 10 minutes into the flight from the P-POD-2 container, along with the ROBUSTA and MaSat-1 CubeSats.