27.08.2025
The Naos satellite blasted off from California on Tuesday evening
Right on schedule at 20:53 on Tuesday evening, the Luxembourg Earth Observation System (Luxeosys) project’s satellite lifted off for low orbit, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where the local time was seven minutes to midday.
The Naos (National Advanced Optical System) satellite will orbit the earth 15 times a day at an altitude of 450km and will take around 100 images a day for at least the next seven years - possibly longer.
The Luxeosys project was first commissioned in 2018 with a price tag of €170 million, however politicians were forced to allocate €130 million more to the troubled project two years later, because the government failed to take operational costs into account in its initial funding bill.
Parliament at the time launched an inquiry, hearing former Economy and Defence Minister Etienne Schneider, who had conceived the project, as well as his successor François Bausch and military and space industry officials.
In a final report, lawmakers lambasted the government for rushing the legislation and not carrying out a feasibility study and accurate costing of the project.
Since then, the timeline for the launch of the satellite, which was designed and built by OHB Italia, has been pushed back several times.
Slated for a 2023 launch aboard a European Arianespace Vega-C rocket, which to this day has still completed only a few of the dozens of launches it had planned, the government decided in February 2024 to switch the launch over to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The satellite comes as part of increased defence spending by the Grand Duchy and will be used to monitor events on the ground, such as implementation of ceasefires and rapidly developing geopolitical situations. The government has confirmed, though, that it will also have civilian roles, including environmental monitoring.
Now safely in orbit, the Naos satellite will enter a testing phase before becoming fully operational early next year.
Quelle: Luxembourg Times