In cooperation with the Masat team, RTM Szoftver Kft. has created an application for Android to promote Masat-1. We can now follow the main telemetry data of Masat-1 live, and we can have a look at the space photos it has taken.

The app is available on Google Play.

Masat-1 started its journey to space exactly one year ago, on 13 February 2012. The European Space Agency’s rocket, Vega launched at 11:00 local time from Kourou (French-Guyana), carrying two bigger satellites and 7 CubeSats made by university and college students, one of which was Hungary’s first satellite, Masat-1.

The cube shaped Masat-1 has 10 cm edges, and is less than 1 kg. It was built according to CubeSat standard. Students, postgraduate students and teachers of two departments of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) – the Department of Broadband Infocommunicatons and Electromagnetic Theory and the Department of Electron Devices – had worked on it for five years. They developed Masat-1 in cooperation with the Hungarian Space Office and sponsors. The exceptional cooperation between developers, more than 50 local and a dozen foreign companies and sponsors made it possible for the first Hungarian satellite to be born.

The team celebrated the event in building I of BME. According to plans, the team gave three presentations about the last year. At the end of the event Zoltán Zboray (Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing) and György Domokos (Infoterra Magyarország Kft.) also held presentations.

For the occasion, Zsolt Karl confectioner (Marcella Confectioner’s of Dunaharaszti) has prepared a special cake.

According to the February 13 issue of Magyar Közlöny, the government decrees that HUF 6.4 million should be allocated from the 2013 budget to support Masat-2 preparations, with an obligation for us to give an account of what it is spent on and to pay back the rest.

The Masat-1 team has been awarded the “Man of the Year” title by the news directorate of RTL Klub for developing the first Hungarian satellite, which was launched into space on 13 February 2012. The plaque that comes with the award has been presented to the team by news director Róbert Kotroczó, who also congratulated on the team’s successes.

The title has been awarded to the winner of a public online vote.

Our team would hereby like to thank our sponsors, partners, supporters as well as those who voted for us for helping us win this award.

We would like to say thank you for your help with a QSL card. If you are not a member of your local amateur radio organization, please fill this form. In this case we are going to send the cards via regular post service. We plan to send the cards in January.

Thank you, HA8AR (Pál) for printing the QSL cards.