Polish student-built satellite to go into orbit on Weds

KRAKsat, a satellite built by students in Krakow (southern Poland) is to be launched into orbit on Wednesday from a NASA-owned centre on Wallops Island, Virginia, USA. It will be the fifth Polish satellite in near-Earth orbit. KRAKsat will be the world's first satellite with magnetic liquid orientation control. Project team member Alicja Kubera told PAP on Monday that KRAKsat will be in orbit for about a year, after which it will burn up in the atmosphere. The students will monitor the equipment's work from Krakow. KRAKsat will be placed inside the Cygnus spacecraft, which will be launched into orbit aboard an Antares 230 rocket, with lift-off scheduled for 10:46 pm Polish time on Wednesday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility, on the US east coast. It will be a standard delivery to the International Space Station, with which Cygnus will dock after several hours' flight. In addition to essential equipment, the craft's interior will also carry other research satellites to be put into orbit.