About Fly Your Satellite!

The advanced nature of the programme encompasses all the activities involved in a typical space mission during the later programme phases, with the assembly, integration and verification, launch and operations of the spacecraft. The programme follows the typical development cycle of a real space mission, passing through different programme phases, and is open to teams that prove to be close to the manufacturing of the satellite subsystems.

With the programme, student teams benefit from tailored guidance provided by ESA experts during dedicated meetings to provide updates on the project status or to address specific challenges. In addition to these, teams participate in regular programme reviews that offer valuable feedback and ensure a smooth advancement of the programme. Participants also gain access to state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge technologies, allowing them to conduct test campaigns as happens in professional projects.

To further enrich their experience, the programme includes a series of specialised webinars led by professionals, covering a wide range of relevant topics. Additionally, financial support is offered to help cover the costs of attending workshops, training sessions, and test campaigns that are organized as part of the programme, ensuring teams have the resources they need to succeed. This support covers up to 350 euros for the travel, an amount for the accommodation depending on the location and a per diem of 35 euros for each main meal (lunch and dinner).

Fly Your Satellite! as part of the ESA Academy makes use of dedicated facilities located at ESA’s Education Centre in ESEC-Galaxia. In particular, the Training and Learning Facility, used to deliver training courses, and the CubeSat Support Facility, a cleanroom laboratory with test facilities, are used throughout the programme.

For the teams that are able to show the readiness of their satellite and ground segment a launch opportunity will be offered by ESA. Once in orbit, the team will receive support during the operational phase and will have the chance to share their mission data, technical and scientific results with ESA experts that have supported the programme throughout the years.

The wide range of activities encompassed by Fly Your Satellite! makes it one of the most comprehensive and complete educational initiatives ever developed to support student satellite projects.

Want to apply?

Call for proposals are open regularly, and the specific details of the application will be presented in the call. Teams are welcome to start looking at the Proposal Instructions page to get a first idea of what is expected from the application.

Furthermore, to address the different needs of educational satellite projects, the programme is flanked by two other opportunities:

• FYS Design Booster, which is opened for teams with a preliminary design that want to benefit from support from ESA for the consolidation of their detailed design.
• Test Opportunities, which is dedicated to teams who would like to test their item (e.g. satellite, subsystem, payload, component…) through an environmental test campaign, while receiving support and training on it.

Complementary to the hands-on programme, the ESA Education Office offers training courses in collaboration with the ESA Academy’s Training Programme. The training weeks particularly aim at students and teams in early phases of satellite projects and include a CubeSats Concurrent Engineering Workshop and a CubeSat Hands-On Training Week.  More information about these sessions can be found on the ESA Academy’s training sessions in the Current and Future opportunities website.  

ESA is committed to achieving diversity and creating an inclusive professional environment. To this end, we welcome proposals and applications from all eligible candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability, or other characteristics. The ESA Academy strongly encourages inclusiveness within its programmes and within participating teams, which contributes to the enrichment of our programme.

Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support, either digitally or at the location of the training. In case of any questions or specific needs, please reach out to esa.academy@esa.int to get assistance or advice.

Are you interested in participating in the next Fly Your Satellite! cycle? You can access all the information about this programme in the Educational Satellites website. 

To be updated on the latest news keep an eye on the ESA Education website and subscribe to the ESA Academy newsletter. For further information please contact us at cubesats@esa.int.

Return to the Educational Satellites page.