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Let us remind you: the development of the first Lithuanian satellite started as a national project, but due to unnamed disagreements between the satellite developers, they were divided into two groups. A group that created LitSAT-1 maintained close relations with Kaunas University of Technology and the Lithuanian Space Association, and on the other side of the barricades was a team sponsored by Vilnius University, where students returning from an internship at the NASA at the time: Vytenis Buzas and Laurynas Mačiulis. Their satellite was called LituanicaSat-1.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Creators of the Lituanica SAT-1 satellite Vytenis Buzas (left) and Laurynas Mačiulis, 2013
The friction between these two groups became more of a race than a partnership to glorify Lithuania. But if anyone expected a clear victory, it was not. The winners who might be the first to announce could not even be determined by a finalizing photo. 2014 On January 9, the two satellites were launched into space by the same Orbital Sciences rocket, Antares, and transported to the International Space Station, and on February 27 of the same year, TKS was launched into open space from the same container. at the same time.
The LituanicaSat-2 satellite, developed by one of the teams that participated in the first race, was soon launched into space. Well, officially Wikipedia and other global satellite counters stopped there – it is indicated that 3 Lithuanian satellites have been launched into space.
Only those satellite counters don’t mention a small detail. The team that developed LituanicaSat created a company that began manufacturing custom satellites and is currently expanding at the speed of a space rocket. It is not even known which is more important: whether the seventh Lithuanian space satellite (four of which were commercial orders from other companies) went into space a month ago, or the fact that a Lithuanian space initiator will build a factory and hire up to 400 specialists in the UK.
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