MISSION CONTROL CENTER (KOROLEV), March 28 (RIA Novosti) - Mission control has received the first signal from the Nanosat minisatellite, manually released into space by Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov during extravehicular activities.
"Specialists on the earth have received a signal sent by the Nanosat. Congratulations, guys. Good work," a mission control officer said during a communication session with International Space Station crewmembers Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao.
"It only weighs five kilograms and Sharipov just pushed it off with two hands, like a basketball, with an acceleration of about one meter per second," the officer said.
The Russian craft will remain in orbit for about three months, as its onboard-battery permits. Communication with it will be maintained through the GlobalStar system. The Nanosat also has a COSPAS-SARSAT (international satellite system for the search and rescue of ships and aircraft in distress) transmitter.
"It is Russia's first experimental spacecraft controlled by the satellite telephone system GlobalStar," said Valery Vishnyakov, leading research associate at the Space Instrument-Making Research Institute.
"Later, when this unique technology has been thoroughly tested, any GlobalStar subscriber will be able to contact the Nanosat and request different information through mission control, ranging from car movements to the latest weather forecasts. It can also be transmitted through our satellite," he said.
In the future, the light carrier rockets Kosmos-3M and Dnepr will orbit such minisatellites.
"Their service life will be about three years. Five such small crafts can be put into orbit at a time. Each will handle different goals, but it will still cost two to three times less than creating and launching one big versatile satellite," Vishnyakov said.
The next, more complicated minisatellite is going to be launched from a Progress space truck that will travel to the ISS.
"It will weigh 7.5 kilograms and stay in orbit for about three months, or as long as the on-board battery lasts," Vishnyakov said.
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