WA’S FIRST SATELLITE IS IN SPACE!
Binar-1, WA’s first homegrown satellite, is flying free in low earth orbit. We successfully made contact with Binar-1 on October 21, 2021, confirming the satellite is powered up and operational.
Launch One
Binar-1 orbits 400km above Earth’s surface, about the distance from Perth to Albany. It will circle the planet once every 90 minutes, making contact whenever it passes over our ground station in Perth.
Although Binar-1 is too small to be seen from the ground, you can track its location and check for new signals from orbit on SatNOGS, an open source network of satellite ground stations. Our thanks to the SatNOGS community for their help tracking Binar-1!
SPACE STATION DEPLOYMENT
Binar-1 was deployed into Low Earth Orbit on October 6 2021 from the Kibo module of the International Space Station.
How we found Binar-1
More updates
February 3, 2022
Finding Binar: The hunt for our first satellite
February 4, 2022
Waking Binar: Our first signals from space
Thanks to our launch and deployment provider, SpaceBD Inc, for the ride into space, and to JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide for the spectacular photos of our departure from the station!
LAUNCH TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Binar-1 launched 29 Aug 2021 3:10pm AWST via SpaceX CRS-23 to the International Space Station for deployment into Low Earth Orbit.
The launch was streamed live to Yagan Square in Perth, where the team was watching.