Education and Science, Estonia, Good for Business, Technology

The start of the rocket and the transmission from the ESA mission command centre till the separation of ESTCube-1 can be watched live at Arianespace.tv. In Estonia, the satellite command centre is located in the Tartu observatory in Tõravere, Tartu University and Tartu Observatory announced.

"The cub satellite ESTCube-1 that was created by our students together with Estonian, Finnish and German research partners has passed successfully the last testing in the French Guiana and is waiting together with the European long-distance surveillance satellite Proba-V and Vietnam's first long-distance surveillance satellite VNREDSat-1A for the start on board of the booster rocket Vega," the project's manager Mart Noorma said.

ESTCube-1 should reach its orbit at 7.06 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The Estonian student satellite programme was initiated by Tartu University students and lecturers in 2008 with the aim of popularising science, giving students practical experiences and developing their enterprisingness. The scientific mission of ESTCube-1 is to test electronic solar sail components.