Small platforms, big ideas

Managed on behalf of the European Commission by ESA’s small satellite platform unit, three missions on this Vega launch are allowing for the early orbital testing of new technologies to make Europe’s space sector more competitive.

∑yndeo

Among the smallest passengers are also the most ambitious in nature: twin miniaturised laboratories, or CubeSats, for the in-orbit demonstration of disruptive, state-of-the-art space technologies. The seven test payloads aboard the European Commission-supported CubeSat Carrier (CSC) satellites, ∑yndeo-1, and ∑yndeo-2, include an innovative plasma jet pack and an ultra-sensitive magnetic instrument. The latter is planned for ESA’s future LISA constellation, which will need to maintain a precise position in deep space in order to detect the nearly imperceivable passage of gravitational waves.