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 c ...

built by the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. It was launched into

Low Earth Orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

on the maiden flight of

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

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, and ...

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

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

LARES Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, 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 ama ...

ALMASat-1 ALMASat-1 (ALma MAter SATellite) was a micro satellite developed by University of Bologna for demonstrative purposes to benefit Earth observation missions. The project was funded by Italian Ministry of Research. About the satellite The satellite ...

Goliat Goliat is the first artificial satellite developed in Romania. Description The nano satellite was developed and built by the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA). When the project began, the developers of this satellite were still in college. The sate ...

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 Technica ...

, PW-Sat,

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 proje ...

e-st@r ''e-st@r'' (Educational Satellite @ Politecnico di Torino) was a Small satellite, miniaturised satellite built by the Polytechnic University of Turin, Politecnico di Torino. It was a 1U CubeSat design with a 10 cm side and a mass not excee ...

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 Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

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