“Ao Xiang No. 1”cube satellite developed by NPU was launched in America at the local time of 23:11 on April 18, and Beijing local time of 11:11 on the same day. As one of the first 28 satellites in EU QB50 Project, it was carried by Atlas5 launcher with Cygnus freight spaceship and was launched successfully from CCAFS in Florida.

These 28 satellites will finish the butt jointing with ISS by Cygnus freight spaceship within later several days and then begin to be distributed through ISS at the end of April. 2U cube satellite “Ao Xiang NO.1” will be the first distributed Chinese satellite through ISS, which successfully realizes the three successive launchings of series of Ao Xiang satellites in one year.

(Yang Huiying)