Tags: Clyde Space, Scotland, UKube-1, United Kingdom, Satellite Launch, GPS
Publication: HeraldScotland.com
Publication Date: 02/06/2013

Artist’s impression of UKube-1. Image credit: UK Space Agency

Clyde Space has announced that the first satellite designed and built in Scotland will be launched on board a Russian rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next June.

Once launched, the UKube-1 nanosatellite will take part in a United Kingdom Space Agency mission. The satellite will use GPS technology to measure plasmaspheric space weather and study how cosmic radiation could improve the security of communication satellites. UKube-1 will also carry five experiments targeted at students from the U.K.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond described the project as being "one small satellite for Clyde and a giant leap for their extraterrestrial export business and a new hope for space science in Scotland".

Salmond visited Clyde Space with Sergey Krutikov, the consul general of the Russian Federation in Scotland and Lena Wilson, the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise to take a look at the satellite.

Clyde Space is now planning on expanding and opening a new base in the U.S.

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