Nanosatellite ‘Menut’ to take off from Cape Canaveral on 3 January

2023-01-02 09:40:00
Nanosatellite 'Menut' to take off from Cape Canaveral on 3 January
Next Tuesday, 3 January, at 3.55 pm (Catalan time), 'Menut', the second nanosatellite that the Catalan government will put into orbit as part of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, will be launched from the Cape Canaveral space base in Florida (USA). It will do so aboard a Falcon 9 rocket of the US company SpaceX. The launch can be followed live on the website https://politiquesdigitals.gencat.cat/menut, where the countdown has already been activated.

Promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya — IEEC), 'Menut' is an Earth observation satellite equipped with a state-of-the-art camera to take images of the Earth that will help address local and global challenges related to the climate emergency, the energy crisis, land management and natural resources and disasters.

'Menut', which was named by the children of Catalonia, was designed and developed by the Catalan company Open Cosmos, which will also operate the satellite while it is in orbit. Once in space, the nanosatellite will orbit the Earth at an altitude of about 500 km and a speed of about 8 km/s, and will pass over Catalonia approximately every 5 days.

‘Menut’ is the second satellite mission of the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia, designed to take advantage of and maximise the opportunities of this sector based on the use of small satellites orbiting at low altitude and the exploitation of their data. Led by the Government of Catalonia, the ultimate aim of the strategy is to project and connect the Catalan space ecosystem with other innovation hubs around the world in order to place it on the international game board linked to this new emerging field.

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