Current call - now closed!
Fly Your Satellite! is an educational programme for university students, that ESA started in 2013, after the successful launch of seven university CubeSats onboard the Vega Maiden flight. The launch of three satellites in April 2016 was the conclusion of its first edition, and the call for proposals for its second cycle is now open.
The Fly Your Satellite! programme is open to support university CubeSat teams at the production and testing stage of a one-, two- or three-unit CubeSat.
The aim of the programme is to support university student teams with educational CubeSats throughout the assembly, integration, testing, and verification process. By participating in the programme, students will implement standard practices for spacecraft development; receive support from experienced ESA specialists; attend tailored training courses; and will be offered access to state-of-the-art test facilities. The project is part of the ESA Academy, and will make use of the new dedicated facilities located at ESA’s Redu Centre in Belgium: the Training and Learning Centre, where training courses will be offered and which is also equipped with a Concurrent Design Facility; and the CubeSat Laboratory. Both of these will be used to support students in the assembly and integration activities, and for CubeSat functional and environmental testing.
For the current edition of the Fly Your Satellite! programme, only launch opportunities from the International Space Station (ISS) are envisioned, and CubeSat teams applying need to ensure that their mission complies with a deployment to orbit from the ISS. CubeSat missions proposed therefore need to be compatible with the orbit and orbital lifetime corresponding to deployment to orbit from the ISS, and the CubeSats must also comply with the ISS safety requirements. Student teams can apply by submitting a proposal describing their CubeSat project and demonstrating the maturity of their project. Throughout the proposal, teams must show that the project is compliant with the programmatic and technical requirements of the Fly Your Satellite! programme. Teams accepted into the programme will work on the assembly, integration, and verification of their CubeSat project. ESA specialists will support their work and guide them through the necessary processes and document packages that are required to successfully complete the phases of development. Student teams will need to pass project reviews to advance to the next phase, and teams that will demonstrate the readiness of their CubeSat to proceed to launch preparation may have the opportunity to launch and operate their CubeSat.
Application - closed!
This opportunity is open to university student teams from ESA Member States*.
To participate in the Fly Your Satellite! programme, see how to apply and conditions to apply.
The submission deadline for proposals was 5 March 2017 at 23:59 CEST. The Selection Workshop for the shortlisted teams is planned from 1 - 4 May 2017, at ESTEC in Noordwijk (the Netherlands).
If you cannot find the information you are looking for on the Fly Your Satellite! website, please contact the FYS project team at cubesats @ esa.int.
*ESA Member States
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada (Associate Member) and Slovenia (Associate Member).