Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – SpaceX – successfully launched the workhorse Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral in the United States on January 3, 2023. This was the sixth dedicated rideshare mission organized by SpaceX and carried 114 payloads into orbit, including the PolyITAN HP-30 nanosatellite designed and built by engineers of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI).
KPI came up with the idea to nurture a space program as recently as 2010, and its first nanosatellite was put into orbit in 2014. The satellite is still travelling successfully on its orbit around the Earth.
Currently, KPI students and researchers are developing two new satellites. One of them is designed under a joint project with Polish students. The nanosatellite will be equipped with optical instruments to monitor the Earth’s ozone layer.
Another satellite is designed under a project to grow plants in zero-gravity conditions without human intervention. The results of this research will be potentially useful for future colonists of Mars or the moon.