Estonian student-made satellite comes to end of life cycle, after four-year orbit
A satellite built by students at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) has made its final orbit and has burned up on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere after nearly four years circling the planet, Postimees reports.
The satellite, the Hämarik (Twilight), was the second TalTech student-developed spacecraft of its kind, and it now also holds the record as Estonia's longest continuously operating satellite.
Ivo Müürsepp, senior lecturer at TalTech and the supervisor of the development of Hämarik's communication system, said: "The satellite has now completed its celestial journey, the last few estimated flyovers yielded no signal," noting that its altitude had dropped to 250 kilometers and meaning it had met the fate TalTech's first student satellite, Koit (Dawn), had done in April - and indeed that all satellites eventually meet.
The satellite was built jointly by TalTech students and private sector firm AS Datel, reached orbit in the early morning of September 3, 2020 and was first contacted on November 15 of the same year, with communication continuing several times per day after that.
The students who participated in the satellite project have since founded their own several space tech, and the project led to several dozen theses for both bachelor's and master's programs, as well as the setting up of the space observation ground station on the roof of TalTech's Mektory building.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Postimees
