UPSat [UPSat Team]
Official name UPSAT
Alternative name UPSat
Cospar ID 1998-067LX
Norad ID 42716
Launch date 1998-11-20
Launch site TTMTR
Launch vehicle Atlas-5(401)
Country/Organization Greece
Type application Technology
Operator University of Patras, Libre Space Foundation
RCS size SMALL
Decay date 2018-11-12
Shape Box
Mass (kg) 2
Height (m) 0.2
Width (m) 0.1
Depth (m) 0.2
Span (m^2) 0.2
Lifetime 3 months
Contractors University of Patras, Libre Space Foundation
Equipment mNLP
Propulsion None
Configuration CubeSat (2U)
Power Solar cells, batteries

UPSat (University of Patras Satellite) is a Greek 2U-CubeSat constructed by University of Patras and Libre Space Foundation part of the QB50 mission with ID GR-02.

UPSat mission aspires to be the first completely open source satellite ever launched, manufactured in Greece, minimizing the usage of COTS components to the absolute minimum. On that scope all subsystems of the satellite are designed from scratch in an open source software and hardware way. The return of investment towards an open source development way, is expected to be significant, kickstarting a new knowledge and building ecosystem around space engineering and technologies.

As a payload for QB50, the satellite carries a multineedle Langmuir probe (mNLP) sampling the electron density of the space around it.

The satellite was launched with the bulk of the QB50 constellation to the ISS in 2017, from where the satellite was deployed on 18 May 2017.

Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
UPSAT 1998-067LX 1998-11-20 TTMTR Atlas-5(401) with Cygnus CRS-7, ALTAIR 1, SUSat, UNSW-EC0, i-INSPIRE 2, ZA-AeroSat, nSIGHT 1, Ex-Alta 1, LilacSat 1, NJUST 1, Aoxiang 1, SOMP 2, QBITO, Aalto 2, X-CubeSat, SpaceCube, DUTHSat, Hoopoe, LINK, SNUSAT 1, SNUSAT 1b, qbee50-LTU-OC, BeEagleSat, HAVELSAT, Phoenix, PolyITAN-2-SAU, QBUS 1, QBUS 2, QBUS 4, IceCube, CSUNSat 1, CXBN 2, KySat 3, SHARC, Lemur-2 30, ..., 33