ESAIL, a commercial microsatellite developed under ESA’s SAT-AIS programme, took off successfully from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on board Vega launcher VV16 at 02:51 a.m. (UTC).
ESAIL will be used for worldwide ship monitoring. The satellite will form part of the exactEarth satellite constellation, to monitor ships using an automatic identification system (AIS).
STT has developed and manufactured the high-rate DVB-S2 payload data downlink communication system (C-Band transmitter PDT with isoflux antenna) to download the vast amount of raw AIS data to ground for further processing.
STT has also delivered its heritage S-Band antennas, being installed onboard ESAIL satellite, for the S-Band TM/TC communications link.
Telemetry data from VEGA VV16 were transmitted during the whole flight to ground using STT's series TS1000S telemetry transmitter.