Dormund, Germany - University students in Europe who put their first unmanned satellite in space this week cheered on Friday at its first signal from orbit - but worried about a problem with a battery pack that could ruin the mission.
The world's first student satellite, the SSETI Express, was launched Thursday by a Russian rocket.
A ground station at the University of Aalborg in Denmark picked up the signals, said a public affairs team at the University of Dortmund in Germany. The Japanese space agency had also logged signals from the orbiter.
Some 250 students from 23 European universities clubbed together to build the device, which is devised to release three sub- satellites.
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Students in Aalborg were in a race to fix software on the satellite before the battery failed, added Jocelyne Landeau, spokesperson for the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt in Germany, which is helping the junior space scientists.
It was possible the new software would fix the problem. Otherwise the mission could be in danger.
The Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) was founded in 2000 and the satellite took less than two years to construct. - Sapa-dpa
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