The final ever experiment to run on ESA’s OPS-SAT in-orbit laboratory has been completed!

OPS-SAT’s final experiment was run by Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) from Greece. It took place at 19:37 UTC on 21 May, by which time OPS-SAT’s operations team was fighting hard to maintain communication with and control of the spacecraft.

“The aim of our experiment was to implement direct TCP/IP connectivity between HAI’s Ground Segment and the OPS-SAT’s SEPP computer in a near-Earth (LEO) satellite mission environment. Traditionally, such missions are controlled over CCSDS-based protocols like the Space Packet Protocol.

Our solution for IP-based connectivity between our company’s Ground Segment in Schimatari, Greece, and the SEPP computer on OPS-SAT was demonstrated with a Flight Demo on May 21, 2024. The demo successfully included pinging the satellite, browsing the web server we installed on the spacecraft and downloading files via HTTP from the OPS-SAT main computer to our Ground Segment at Hellenic Aerospace Industry.”

— Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI)

“OPS-SAT has been a great opportunity for us to demonstrate novel solutions for space communication in-orbit. It has not only been the first ESA mission to use the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol, now standard for all new ESA missions, but also allowed to experimentation with network-centric space communication until the very last minute with the demonstration of LEO TCP/IP connectivity by Hellenic Aerospace Industries (HAI).

We have had the first demonstration of the new Bundle Protocol Version 7 by our partners at D3TN and joint demonstrations of Disruption Tolerant Networking together with HAI. This is an important step towards the global vision of a Solar System Internet.”

— Felix Flentge, ESA Ground Segment Engineering & Innovation

OPS-SAT has also sent back its final image of Earth.

OPS-SAT's final image
OPS-SAT’s final image

This image was taken off the southern coast of Australia at 22:15 UTC on Monday 20 May.

But every cloud has a silver lining. The OPS-SAT mission will come to an end tonight, but the OPS-SAT name will live on. More info soon.