ECUADORIAN
SATELLITES PASSED ALL TESTS AND ARE NOW APPROVED FOR SPACEFLIGHT
Guayaquil, March 6, 2013.-
The NEE-01 PEGASO and NEE-02 KRYSAOR Ecuadorian satellites have passed
all qualification tests for spaceflight and integration on Chinese and
Russian launch vehicles and are ready for launch informed today the
Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency - EXA
Last February, a joint team of EXA and the Ecuadorian Government
traveled to the Netherlands carrying the satellites where the main
laboratories for spaceflight qualification of ISL/ISIS reside, this is
the company that manages the launch opportunities for nanosatellites for
Chinese and Russian rockets, the Ecuadorian satellites were subject to
all necessary tests for enduring space environment and qualification to
board Chinese and Russian launch vehicles, the tests were passed by the
satellites without problems.
ISL/ISIS pronounced the satellites passed and gave the Acceptance and
Qualification Certification for the NEE-01 PEGASO y NEE-02 KRYSAOR, the
first satellites completely designed and developed in Latin-America
without any support or foreign help by EXA Ecuadorian engineers and
whose launch has been financed by the Ecuadorian Government.
"This is a very important achievement in our history and the history of
our region because now our space technology is qualified to board
Chinese and Russian launch vehicles and to survive the harsh space
environment, the satellites passed all tests with flying colors and a
clean bill of health, now we only wait for the launch of the first one,
the NEE-01 PEGASO on the first half of May and the second one for the
second half of July" said Ronnie Nader, Space Operations Director and
leader of the team that built the satellites, Nader is also the first
Ecuadorian Cosmonaut.
The first satellite to reach orbit will the NEE-01 PEGASO, onboard a
Chinese LM2D rocket, both satellites were designed and built completely
on Ecuador using private funding by a team of EXA engineers that worked
pro bono to built them, while later the Ecuadorian government
joined the project by financing the launch operations and the tests
logistics. On May 2011 this team of engineers were awarded the National
Congress Medal to Scientific Merit, the highest honor bestowed in the
country.
Together, the EXA and the Ecuadorian government will operate the
satellites for scientific and educational purposes.
The launch of NEE-01 PEGASO had been planned for November 2012 on board
a Russian Dnepr rocket, but such launch was postponed for July this
year, which forced the Ecuadorians to apply for a Chinese launcher,
however this forced the satellites to be re-qualified and re-tested to
higher levels of endurance in order to be able to board any of those
rockets, tests that now have been passed successfully by the Ecuadorian
engineering, the first in Latin America of national origin without any
foreign support or help.
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