Chris Moeckel and Roger Roglans recently returned from Berlin, where they successfully integrated CURIE into the NovaPod with four other satellites. After a stop in Paris, the NovaPod will travel to French Guiana to be launched on an Ariane 6 maiden flight. CURIE is the CUbesat Radio Interferometry Experiment; its two satellites will measure radio waves coming from the Sun and other radio sources in the sky. “When a spot on the first flight of Ariane 6 was made available to us, the CURIE team was very excited. It is such a big event in the world of rocketry and space exploration,” recalls David Sundkvist, principal investigator for the mission. “For a team that is developing a new concept – a formation flying satellite radio interferometer – launching on the inaugural flight of Europe’s new rocket is like a satellite developer’s dream come true.” The CURIE team expressed their thanks to SSL for their support of this mission, “It wouldn’t have been possible without all the expertise, hard work and patience of SSL.”
