{"id":43688,"date":"2025-09-26T01:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43688\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T01:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:16:11","slug":"finnish-nanosatellite-for-esa-nears-end-of-mission-to-burn-up-in-atmosphere-xinhua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43688\/","title":{"rendered":"Finnish nanosatellite for ESA nears end of mission, to burn up in atmosphere-Xinhua"},"content":{"rendered":"

The picture shows the W-Cube nanosatellite. (VTT Technical Research Centre\/Handout via Xinhua)<\/p>\n

Launched on June 30, 2021, the cube-shaped satellite, about the size of a 1.5-litre milk carton, was the first ESA spacecraft ordered from Finland.<\/p>\n

HELSINKI, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — The W-Cube nanosatellite, developed in Finland for the European Space Agency (ESA), is nearing the end of its mission and will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere within days, Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The satellite is currently orbiting at about 200 km above the Earth’s surface and rapidly losing altitude. Scientists expect its signal to be lost at any time as atmospheric friction increases, causing it to ignite and disintegrate.<\/p>\n

Launched on June 30, 2021, the cube-shaped satellite, about the size of a 1.5-litre milk carton, was the first ESA spacecraft ordered from Finland. It has operated for more than four years, close to the typical lifespan of nanosatellites.<\/p>\n

The mission marked the first demonstration in orbit of the 75 gigahertz frequency band for satellite communications, VTT said in a statement. The satellite collected data on how the Earth’s atmosphere, especially rain and clouds, weakens high-frequency wireless signals.<\/p>\n

“The W-Cube satellite validated that much higher frequency bands than those used today can be utilised in satellite communications and achieve very high performance,” said Jussi Saily, principal scientist at VTT. He said the technology could eventually deliver faster connections directly to smartphones in Europe.<\/p>\n

The picture shows VTT’s satellite ground station introduced in 2024 and located in Espoo, southern Finland. (VTT Technical Research Centre\/Handout via Xinhua)<\/p>\n

The spacecraft carried a radio beacon system co-developed by VTT and Germany’s Fraunhofer IAF. Signals were successfully received at ground stations in Finland, Austria and the Netherlands, enabling measurements of atmospheric attenuation critical for future high-frequency satellite systems.<\/p>\n

Kuva Space, a Finnish company, supplied the satellite platform, including the frame, solar panels and attitude control system, and operated the mission’s ground stations. VTT said the reliable platform played an important role in the mission’s success.<\/p>\n

ESA has now commissioned VTT to lead a larger follow-up project, the 6G-Lino satellite, which is scheduled for launch in 2026. VTT’s ground station in Espoo, southern Finland, will continue to support ESA’s Alphasat and other projects, including drone trials using millimetre-wave frequencies.<\/p>\n

Nanosatellites are very small satellites, usually weighing only a few kilograms. They are far cheaper and faster to build than traditional satellites, and are often used for research, technology testing and new communications applications. \u25a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The picture shows the W-Cube nanosatellite. (VTT Technical Research Centre\/Handout via Xinhua) Launched on June 30, 2021, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10805,8019,61,60,32554,82],"class_list":["post-43688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-esa","tag-finland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nanosatellite","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}