Overview
- ATENEA, which first checked in seconds after separation at 00:58 Thursday, maintained contact out to about 70,000 kilometers in what CONAE called a new national mark for communications distance.
- The Argentine-built 12U CubeSat rode as a secondary payload on NASA’s crewed Artemis II, deploying about five and a half hours after liftoff near 45,000 kilometers rather than traveling on to the Moon.
- CONAE’s ground stations in Córdoba and Tierra del Fuego received steady telemetry, including battery charge, voltages, currents, temperatures, orientation to the Sun, and the status of onboard experiments.
- The project brings together Argentina’s space agency with universities and labs such as UNLP, UNSAM, FIUBA, IAR, CNEA, and the aerospace firm VENG, showcasing a domestic R&D network tied to an international mission.
- Over the coming weeks, engineers will analyze link quality, radiation and sensor data, and high-altitude GNSS tests near twice geostationary height, work that could ready Argentine hardware and ground systems for deeper-space use.