ESA hosts Greek CubeSat assembly, integration and testing workshop at ESTEC

To further support the CubeSat missions, ESA organised a workshop in August at its ESTEC facility in the Netherlands. The two-day event focused on the assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) of the satellites, bringing together 30 participants from the organisations involved in the missions.

ESA experts shared insights and lessons learned from previous CubeSat projects, covering environmental testing, system-level functional testing, AIT best practices and quality assurance. Participants also toured ESA's Mechanical Systems Laboratory at ESTEC, gaining first-hand experience with state-of-the-art testing and integration infrastructure.

This workshop is part of ESA's ongoing support for the Greek space sector, aimed at ensuring the success of these CubeSat missions and fostering the growth of Greece's space industry capabilities.

"These CubeSat projects exemplify the innovative spirit and technical strength of Greece's space sector. ESA is proud to support this journey, which will not only benefit Greece but also contribute significantly to Europe's space capabilities,” said Frederic Rouesnel, Greek Connectivity RRF Project Manager at ESA.

"The Ministry of Digital Governance, via the secretariat of Telecommunications and Post and the Hellenic Space Center, is closely monitoring, supporting and facilitating all missions to alleviate implementation challenges that arise during the manufacturing, testing and launching of Greek CubeSats. This pivotal activity for the development of the national space industry is being conducted at an unprecedented scale in Greece," said Prof. K. Karantzalos, Secretary General of Telecommunications & Post at the Ministry of Digital Governance.

"The Greek CubeSat In-Orbit Validation (IOV) programme focuses on augmenting the technical competence of Greek space industry and academia on designing, building, launching and operating end-to-end satellite systems. The primary focus of the programme is on secure connectivity applications (optical and RF), while Earth observation applications are also within scope. This underlines the wide reach of the activity to the Greek space ecosystem, thus enhancing the interdisciplinary expertise of Greek engineers in space applications and technologies," said Dimitrios Christopoulos, Scientific Officer at the Hellenic Space Center.