Portugal News – Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch Portuguese satellite Prometheus-1 from the Vandenberg spaceport in California in January 2025.
Portuguese satellite Prometheus-1, built by Minho University (UMinho), will be launched by Space X in early January and will then remain in orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometers in order to collect useful data for the academic and scientific communities.
Prometheus-1 will be Portugal’s third satellite in orbit, after the launch of satellite MH-1 from the Aeros consortium and ISTSat-1 from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon.
Prometheus-1 satellite measures five centimeters on each side and weighs 250 grams. It contains battery management and orientation systems, microcontrollers and a camera similar to that of a cell phone to capture images that will allow to evaluate from Earth its positioning and possible software errors.
The consortium that developed Portugal’s Prometheus-1 satellite is led by Alexandre Ferreira da Silva, from the Department of Industrial Electronics at UMinho’s School of Engineering, in partnership with the teams of Zachary Manchester, from Carnegie Mellon University (USA), who designed the initial platform, and Rodrigo Ventura and Rui Rocha, from Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico, who contributed to the ground segment. Companies Alba Orbital and Fossa Systems also collaborated on the integration of the satellite that is funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.
The launch of Portuguese satellite Prometheus-1 by Space X is an important milestone in Portugal’s space ecosystem, in which satellites entirely developed and built in Portugal are launched into Earth’s orbit.
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