Today at 7:30 CET, the first Luxembourg-built satellite „VesselSat1“ was launched from the Indian launch site Sriharikota on board a PSLV rocket into a near-equatorial orbit. About 2 hours later, at 9:24 CET,  first contact was established with the satellite through the ORBCOMM Malaysian ground station. Vesselsat1 was designed and built by LuxSpace Sarl, an affiliate of OHB AG (Prime Standard, ISIN: DE0005936124) in only one year. The exclusive rights to use the data of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload belong to ORBCOMM Inc., a global supplier of satellite-based communication and data services.

Vesselsat1 weighs 28 kg and will be integrated into ORBCOMM’s  Next Generation (OG2) constellation of 18 AIS-enabled satellites after an in-orbit test and checkout phase. The specific orbit of the VesselSat1 satellite will allow ship monitoring and surveillance in the equatorial regions with a much higher revisit frequency than platforms in polar orbit.

A second satellite, VesselSat2, is almost complete and willl also be launched this year. Like VesselSat1, it will be integrated into the OG2 system and ORBCOMM’s Satellite AIS Service as well.