SwissCube: seven years in space and still active

23. The little Swiss satellite was launched on 23 September 2009 and continues to send back regular reports. That ranks it among the oldest nanosatellites that are still active. Enthusiasts will be able to follow the satellite using a soon-to-be released mobile app. It has circled the Earth nearly 38,000 times, sent back 150 million reports, transmitted dozens of megabytes of data and stood up surprisingly well to the damaging effects of solar particles on the electronic components. SwissCube, the little satellite developed by EPFL in partnership with several other specialized universities, is celebrating seven years in space today. EPFL's Space Engineering Center, eSpace, is planning a series of birthday events: a reunion of the satellite's designers, conferences, personal accounts, previously unseen videos, and the retransmission of one of the satellite's overhead passes.