Easily overlooked on the manifest for the SpaceX Transporter-7 rideshare mission launched into low Earth orbit on April 15 aboard a Falco is a 6U-class nanosatellite called VCUB1.
On a mission that included an 800-kg Turkish imaging satellite and a three-satellite cluster of Hawkeye 360 radio frequency monitors, a 12-kg spacecraft carrying an imaging sensor and a software defined radio may not immediately stand out.
For Brazil, however, the modest VCUB1 is a step in a long-awaited journey to become a self-sufficient, spacefaring country.
SpaceX delayed the launch twice during the week of April 10, but the VCUB1 manufacturer Visiona—a joint venture between Embraer and Telebras—probably did not mind. The program, which was launched in 2015, had already slipped three years behind schedule, so waiting several days more made no significant difference.
The VCUB1’s mission now begins. D-Orbit’s transfer vehicle will take the VCUB1 to its final orbital position. A period of stabilization and preliminary testing will then begin. Then, finally, the experimental phase for the satellite’s Brazilian-made technologies will get underway.
Visiona’s goal is to field a constellation of similar, Earth-observing nanosatellites if the mission is successful, then move on to bigger satellites to meet Brazil’s civil and military needs in space, as Embraer’s locally built aircraft provide aerial surveillance within the atmosphere over the country.
The Earth-observation satellite constellation projects would complement other ongoing efforts under the Brazilian government’s 11-year-old Strategic Space Systems Program, which is known by its Portuguese acronym PESE. That portfolio includes the government-funded, three-stage VLM rocket launcher for microsatellites and the Carbonis-1 communications satellite.
Brazil already has a presence in space, but not with indigenous satellites. A partnership produced the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellites (CBERS), with China serving as the integrator. The partnership allowed Brazilian company Opto Electronica to experiment with the MUX imaging sensor on CBERS-3. Akaer, another Brazilian company, later integrated the 3UCAM camera, a smaller version of the MUX sensor, for the VCUB1 payload.
Meanwhile, Visiona formed in 2011 and partnered with Thales on the Brazilian military’s Strategic and Defense Communications Geostationary Satellite (SGDC), which the French company integrated and assembled. But Visiona engineers embedded with Thales in France, learning the skills to start working on the key technologies aboard the VCUB1.
“VCUB1 materializes a yearslong effort to create a Brazilian space systems integrator company initiated with the SGDC program,” said João Paulo Campos, president of Visiona.
Most importantly, the SGDC project helped Visiona learn how to design an attitude and orbit control system (AOCS), a foundational technology for an orbital spacecraft of any size. The VCUB1 also features an onboard data-handling system (OBDH) and a software-defined radio (SDR).
VCUB1’s total payload, consisting of the AOCS, OBDH, SDR and the subscale MUX, is an experimental system, intending to validate technologies for future satellites.
“The launch of VCUB1 is historic for the Brazilian aerospace industry because it places the country in a select group of nations that dominate the entire process of satellite development,” Campos said.
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