UniCubeSat-GG is a

Miniaturized satellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...

built by the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

. It was launched into

Low Earth Orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

on the maiden flight of

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

on 13 February 2012. The launch was a multi-payload mission shared with

LARES Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these. Lare ...

, ALMASat-1, Goliat,

MaSat-1 MaSat-1 (from the words ''Magyar'' and ''Satellite'', the first meaning " Hungarian" in Hungarian, ''maszat'', pronounced IPA �mɒsɒt meaning "smudge") is the first indigenous Hungarian satellite, developed and built by students at the Technical ...

PW-Sat PW-Sat is a series of satellites that includes the first Polish artificial satellite which was launched 13 February 2012 from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre aboard Italian-built Vega launch vehicle during its maiden voyage. PW-Sat1's mission was ...

ROBUSTA ROBUSTA (Radiation on Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application) is a nano-satellite scientific experiment developed by the University of Montpellier students as part of a Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) call for student projects ...

e-st@r ''e-st@r'' (Educational Satellite @ Politecnico di Torino) was a miniaturised satellite built by the Politecnico di Torino. It was a 1U CubeSat design with a 10 cm side and a mass not exceeding 1.33 kg. Launch and deployment In 20 ...

and

Xatcobeo Xatcobeo, originally known as ''Dieste'', is a project to build the first Galician artificial satellite developed by Agrupación Estratéxica Aeroespacial (currently Alén Space) of the University of Vigo and leadered by Fernando Aguado in collab ...

. UniCubeSat-GG is a 1-U cubesat design with a mass of 1 kg. Its primary mission is to study the effects of orbital eccentricity through the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

gradient.

References

External links

GAUSS Srl - Group of Astrodynamics for the Use of Space Systems

Satellites orbiting Earth CubeSats Satellites of Italy Spacecraft launched in 2012 Spacecraft launched by Vega rockets 2012 in Italy {{Italy-spacecraft-stub