LituanicaSAT-1 – the first Lithuanian 1U CubeSat satellite which was launched from the Wallops flight facility by Antares rocket, with the International Space Station (ISS) resupply cargo ship Cygnus 2 in January, 2014. It was one of the firsts European satellites launched from the ISS in cooperation with NASA Ames centre and the space logistics company NANORACKS.
The mission started as a non-profit private initiative of the founders of NanoAvionics and Vilnius University. It later evolved into a successful national scale project involving more than 40 committed people and more than 30 partner organisations. LituanicaSAT-1 mission garnered full support from the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė. During the mission greetings from the President were broadcast from space: “Greetings to all Lithuanians around the world”.
Deployment of the LituanciaSAT-1 (first above) from ISS. (Image credit: NASA)