Masat-1 started its journey to space exactly one year ago, on 13 February 2012. The European Space Agency’s rocket, Vega launched at 11:00 local time from Kourou (French-Guyana), carrying two bigger satellites and 7 CubeSats made by university and college students, one of which was Hungary’s first satellite, Masat-1.

The cube shaped Masat-1 has 10 cm edges, and is less than 1 kg. It was built according to CubeSat standard. Students, postgraduate students and teachers of two departments of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) – the Department of Broadband Infocommunicatons and Electromagnetic Theory and the Department of Electron Devices – had worked on it for five years. They developed Masat-1 in cooperation with the Hungarian Space Office and sponsors. The exceptional cooperation between developers, more than 50 local and a dozen foreign companies and sponsors made it possible for the first Hungarian satellite to be born.

The team celebrated the event in building I of BME. According to plans, the team gave three presentations about the last year. At the end of the event Zoltán Zboray (Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing) and György Domokos (Infoterra Magyarország Kft.) also held presentations.

For the occasion, Zsolt Karl confectioner (Marcella Confectioner’s of Dunaharaszti) has prepared a special cake.