The LORIS became the first ever Nova Scotian made satellite to launch into orbit over the holidays. Photo: Twitter.
Over the holidays over 300 staff and students at Dalhousie University were watching eagerly as the satellite they had helped build over the past four years was launched into orbit.
The low-orbit reconnaissance imagery satellite or LORIS is about the size of a shoebox and its primary function is to analyze how different computers and electronics function in space.
The satellite launched on board a SpaceX rocket from NASA’s Houston facility on December 29, and the satellite successfully deployed into orbit that same day.
In the days since the LORIS ground team based at Dalhousie have been attempting to establish communication with the satellite. LORIS orbits past Nova Scotia 3-4 times daily which is when the ground team attempts to contact it.
Their first attempts to make contact proved unsuccessful, however on December 30 using a highly directional antenna a partial connection was established.
Last night at 0330hr we managed to make a partial contact with @loris_nano through our mobile station using a highly directional antenna. Spacecraft is possibly experiencing some anomalies that we are working to resolve. #satellite pic.twitter.com/XHRH6Eh3Oy
— Dalhousie Space Systems Lab. (DSS) (@dssLabs) December 31, 2022
Work is now underway to determine the reason for the communication issues and after which they hope to begin collecting data from the satellite.
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