Croatia's 1st satellite captures its first views of home (photo)
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Croatia's first ever satellite has just beamed to Earth the first image of its homeland.
The satellite, called CroCube, is a 1U cubesat 3.3 by 3.3 by 3.3 inches (10 x 10 x 10 centimeters) in size. It launched to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in late December on the company's Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission.
The debut image, released via the mission's Facebook page on Jan. 31, shows a cloud-covered outline of the Mediterranean country famous for its crystal blue sea and scenic coast.
"Although our land is partly clouded, we have identified the outlines of land and mountain ranges through them," the team behind the mission said in the Facebook post. "Most importantly — Croatia is now among the countries that have their own pictures taken from orbit."
The satellite also sent home a short video and another image showing Bulgaria, which lies further to the east on the Black Sea coast.
The crowd-funded mission was put together by the Croatian Society for Education Outside the Box and Czech company Spacemanic.
The $124,000 project aims to encourage interest in astronomy and space in Croatia and gather data using a set of onboard sensors.
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Space enthusiasts will be able to interact with CroCube's data and images via a mobile app that will display freshly downloaded images.
The first set of images was captured on Jan 28, a little over a month after CroCube's launch. The satellite circles Earth at the altitude of 317 miles (510 kilometers) and will remain in orbit for about 5 years, gradually spiraling back toward the planet. At the end of its mission, it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
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