A rocket carrying the Polish STAR VIBE satellite has been launched into the orbit

10.01.2023

On Tuesday, January 3, at 3:56 pm, a Falcon 9 rocket with the Polish STAR VIBE satellite was launched into orbit. Scanway, a Wroclaw-based company, is responsible for the project. The event was broadcast on the channel "With head in the stars" by Karol Wójcicki. Check out the video recording of the event!

The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket is a demonstration mission of two proprietary systems: a small Earth observation telescope called STAR and a system for auto-inspection of the satellite’s condition called VIBE.

STAR imaging the Earth

The goal of the mission is to test the STAR telescope and VIBE technology under space conditions.

The STAR telescope makes it possible to take images of the Earth that will tell us a lot about:

the course of global climate change,
the effects of natural disasters,
phenomena supporting efficient agriculture.

VIBE analyzes the quality of infrastructure

VIBE, on the other hand, is a vision system located on a folding beam. The camera is connected to the space vehicle’s onboard computer, which, by collecting images at its base, enables analysis through artificial intelligence. And this, in turn, makes it possible to detect damage to orbital infrastructure, such as solar panels, more efficiently.

Mission objective: how space affects instrumentation

The mission will test the impact of space conditions (vacuum, temperature fluctuations, high radiation, microgravity) on telescope components and electronics on board and on the quality of data collected.

The STAR VIBE mission is unique for the Polish space sector primarily because VIBE is the first Polish optical instrument for auto-inspection of orbital infrastructure equipped with an algorithm based on artificial intelligence.

Launching a rocket into orbit. See the video

You can see the broadcast of the Falcon 9 rocket launch on the “With Your Head in the Stars” channel.