BRITE-PL1, WNISat-1, and GOMX-1 Launch Successfully

Yasny, Russia – Three satellites were launched today as part of SFL’s Nanosatellite Launch Service 9 (NLS-9) cluster on board a Dnepr rocket.  These include BRITE-PL1, Poland’s first BRITE satellite based on SFL’s Generic Nanosatellite Bus, WNISat-1 for WeatherNews Inc. in Japan, and GOMX-1 for GomSpace ApS in Denmark.  All three satellites were contacted and found to be healthy after launch.  BRITE-PL1 is one of six satellites in BRITE-Constellation, a group of nanosatellites with 3cm-aperture optical telescopes to observe the most luminous stars in our galaxy.  As the third BRITE satellite to be launched, BRITE-PL1 complements two Austrian BRITE satellites, UniBRITE and BRITE-Austria, that were launched earlier in 2013.  While the SFL technology used in BRITE-PL1 is virtually identical to that used in UniBRITE and BRITE-Austria, BRITE-PL1 carries a different star tracker of Canadian origin, from Sinclair Interplanetary.   “We’ve now launched half the satellites of BRITE-Constellation, and there are exciting times ahead for the BRITE Science Team,” says Cordell Grant, Manager, Satellite Systems at SFL and project manager for BRITE-Constellation.  The remaining satellites in BRITE-Constellation include a second Polish satellite and two Canadian BRITE satellites funded by the Canadian Space Agency.  The remaining satellites are expected to launch in 2014.