Goliat

Goliat is the first artificial satellite developed in Romania.

Description

The nano satellite was developed and built by the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA). When the project began, the developers of this satellite were still in college.

The satellite is cube-shaped and has a mass of 1 kilogram, and its dimensions are 10 cm on each side. It is built on a Cubesat platform. The satellite carries out three scientific tasks: micrometeorite flux measurements, cosmic radiation flux measurements at LEO and Earth surface imaging via a 3 megapixel camera.

The project was funded and supported by the Romanian Ministry of Education and the European Space Agency.

Launch

Although the initial launch was planned for 2008, the project had been postponed due to some issues with the carrier rocket, Vega.

The satellite was successfully launched on 13 February 2012 from the Guiana Space Centre, together with LARES and other CubeSat satellites from other European countries.

As of 26 February 2012, it appears that the satellite has not settled into the orbit properly. Due to a malfunction to its stabilizing system, it is expected that the satellite will spin uncontrollably and eventually get lost in space. However, the coordinator of the project, Mugurel Bălan has stated that the situation is under control.