Terran Orbital supervises Italian students building satellite for first Vatican space mission
June 13 2023 - 1:45PM
Business Wire
Tyvak International, Terran Orbital’s subsidiary, supports
Polytechnic University of Turin students as they advance pope’s
Spei Satelles space mission to transmit messages of hope
A satellite created with the help of Terran Orbital
Corporation’s (NYSE: LLAP) Italian subsidiary, Tyvak International,
successfully launched Monday, carrying Pope Francis’s iconic
“Statis Orbis” coronavirus pandemic prayer heavenward.
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Students from the Polytechnic University
of Turin or Politecnico di Torino perform test activities on the on
the Spei Satelles papal satellite, as engineers with Tyvak
International, a Terran Orbital subsidiary, supervise the students’
work. (Image Credit: Politecnico di Torino)
The Polytechnic University of Turin (PoliTO) CubeSat Team and
DIANA Robotics Team designed the 3U CubeSat spacecraft for the
papal Spei Satelles or Satellites of Hope space mission, which
blasted off Monday from the Vandenberg Air Force in California
aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
A technical team from Tyvak International, Terran Orbital’s
Turin, Italy subsidiary, proudly supervised and supported the
students’ six-month project to develop the satellite, which will
operate from Low Earth Orbit. The Project has been promoted by the
Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See in unity with the Pope,
together with the Italian Space Agency.
Spei Satelles contains a nanobook, a 2-millimeter by
2-millimeter, 0.2-millimeter-thick silicon slab fabricated by the
Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology of the National Research
Council of Italy. The book contains images and readings associated
with Pope Francis’s famous March 27, 2020 public prayer. That March
night, a solemn, solitary Pope Francis slowly ascended the steps of
St. Peter’s Basilica in the rain before hoisting a cross above his
head beneath a white canopy.
He encouraged the world to stay strong with a prayer delivered
before an empty square that typically draws tens of thousands of
people for papal speeches. In the viral speech, the pope called for
humanity to unite to fight the pandemic with “the strength of
faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope.”
Now, the Spei Satelles mission will transmit Pope Francis’s
messages of hope and unity in 437.5 MHz, a UHF amateur satellite
band, during the satellite’s stay in sun-synchronous orbit 525
kilometers above Earth. Tyvak International includes several PoliTO
alumni, who learned how to design, launch and operate
nanosatellites in the same CubeSat Team Lab where they recently
worked closely with the next generation of spacecraft
engineers.
“It’s a huge honor for our company to be part of this historical
and inspirational papal space mission,” said Fabio Nichele, CEO of
Tyvak International. “We’ve encouraged the passion and dedication
of a new generation of space enthusiasts, while spreading a message
of unity and hope.”
“We are grateful to the Tyvak International team for their
invaluable contribution to the development of Spei Satelles,” said
Sabrina Corpino, a PoliTO professor and project manager for the
Spei Satelles mission. “Our students have been supported by
incredible engineers, who shared their unique background on small
satellites, making this experience a perfect example of a
successful collaboration between industry and academia.”
About Tyvak International
Tyvak International is a Terran Orbital subsidiary, an
operationally independent unit and a leading small satellite
integrator primarily serving the European and International markets
Learn more at www.tyvak.eu.
About Terran Orbital
Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of satellite products
primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries. Terran
Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining
satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations
and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding
military, civil and commercial customers. Learn more at
www.terranorbital.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230613962918/en/
Dan Axelrod, daniel.axelrod@terranorbital.com
pr@terranorbital.com, 949-656-0037
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