Three Years in Orbit: Student Satellite Triples Its Expected Lifespan and Continues to Operate
June 27, 2026, marks three years since the launch of CubeSX-HSE-3, the third research satellite developed by HSE University. Equipped with an AIS system designed for operation in the Arctic, the satellite has completed more than 16,500 orbits of the Earth (covering approximately 720 million kilometres), operated for over 26,000 hours, and transmitted data more than a thousand times. It has captured over 150 images of the Earth, and these figures continue to grow.
The primary mission of CubeSX-HSE-3 is to receive Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals from ships to monitor maritime traffic along the Northern Sea Route. Due to the Earth's curvature, coastal receivers can detect vessels only within a range of several dozen kilometres, while vast areas of the Arctic and the open ocean lack coastal coverage altogether. The solution is to place the antenna in space, allowing the satellite in orbit to monitor a vast expanse of ocean from above.
With an estimated service life of one year, the satellite has exceeded its expected operational lifespan by a factor of three and continues to transmit data. 'One year was the mission duration we had anticipated under standard operating conditions. The fact that the satellite has been conducting transmission sessions regularly for a third consecutive year is not a miracle but the result of skilled and coordinated work of our team of faculty members, engineers, and students, who made the right decisions at every stage—from the design of its systems and components to the development and operation of its onboard software infrastructure,' says Dmitrii Abrameshin, Head of the Laboratory of Space Vehicles and Systems' Functional Safety at HSE MIEM.
In addition to the AIS receiver, the satellite is equipped with a camera for Earth imaging and an ADS-B receiver for aircraft tracking. The principle is similar to that of AIS: the object broadcasts its own coordinates, while orbital reception enables coverage in areas where ground-based radar systems are unavailable.
The satellite is built in the 3U CubeSat format, consisting of three 10 cm cubic modules, and is based on the OrbiCraft-Pro 3U platform developed with support from Sputnix. It weighs 3.39 kg and has three units: one houses a flywheel assembly for attitude control, another contains the onboard computer and control electronics, while the third is dedicated to the payload. CubeSX-HSE-3 operates in a sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of approximately 97.6°, communicates at a frequency of 436.57 MHz under the call sign RS42S, and is listed in the international satellite catalogue under number 57178.
The spacecraft was launched on June 27, 2023, from Vostochny Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage, which placed 40 Russian satellites into orbit in a single launch. CubeSX-HSE-3 became the first satellite of HSE University to be launched from Vostochny Cosmodrome, continuing the university’s line of spacecraft missions.
The first satellites of HSE University, CubeSX-HSE and CubeSX-Sirius-HSE, were launched in March 2021 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. One of them tested a Fresnel lens camera, while the other was developed in collaboration with students from the Sirius Educational Centre. Both missions have since been completed. In August 2022, CubeSX-HSE-2 was launched, with its mission concluding in May 2024. This satellite marked the beginning of the maritime and Arctic focus in the university’s line of spacecraft. All of these satellites were developed within the framework of the Space-π project, with support from the Innovation Promotion Foundation.
CubeSX-HSE-3 is controlled from the Mission Control Centre at MIEM, which was opened in 2015 and is one of the first university-based mission control centres in Russia. Today, it tracks more than 50 microsatellites. Communication sessions are conducted by HSE University students, who are allowed to operate the real spacecraft only after completing a structured training pathway—studying hardware mock-ups, practising emergency scenarios on simulators, and passing certification. 'A student conducting a session with CubeSX-HSE-3 is working with a real satellite, not a simulator. The pass over the ground station’s line of sight lasts only a few minutes and cannot be repeated: one missed response, and the command has to be postponed to the next orbit. You quickly learn to concentrate under these conditions,' notes Dmitrii Abrameshin.
Dmitry Bondarenko
About one hundred students have participated in the project. For many of them, this experience marked the beginning of a career in the space industry and related engineering fields. 'What drew me into engineering was the stars,' says Dmitry Bondarenko, a technician at the Laboratory of Space Vehicles and Systems' Functional Safety. 'At school, I could spend hours looking at the night sky, trying to understand how everything there was held together and moved. Later, I realised that you don’t have to be just an observer—you can sit at the console and know that, at that very moment, somewhere up there, your device is listening to you.'
The laboratory is currently developing solutions to address key limitations of CubeSats. On December 28, 2025, an experimental onboard data storage module was launched into orbit, developed jointly by the Laboratory of Spacecraft and Systems' Functional Safety and Sputnix. The module is designed to securely store data on board without operator intervention. In February 2026, the first telemetry data was received from it. The laboratory is also preparing the launch of a satellite equipped with perovskite solar cells, whose in-orbit performance has yet to be studied. The launch is scheduled for late 2026. Both projects are being implemented under the federal 'Personnel for Space' project, which is part of the national project 'Development of Space Activities of the Russian Federation through 2030 and for the Future to 2036.'
'The satellite will eventually fall silent and deorbit—this is the natural end for any spacecraft. What follows will be the memory module, perovskites, and future launches. The most important thing is that today we have the people who can bring space technologies into orbit and keep them operational,' concludes Dmitrii Abrameshin.
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