FrontierSat (CTS-SAT-1)
FrontierSat is CalgaryToSpace's maiden voyage, and the first student-developed satellite to be launched into space in the history of Calgary.
FrontierSat launched on May 3, 2026 from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket. It was delivered to an altitude of 500 km and injected into a Sun Synchronous Orbit via Exolaunch's EXOpod NOVA.
FrontierSat is a 3U CubeSat, a type of nano satellite, about the size of a loaf of bread. Despite its small size, it carries multiple high-tech instruments developed by University of Calgary researchers.
FrontierSat Interactive 3D Model
FrontierSat GitHub
Check out our GitHub repositories to see the various designs and tools used to make FrontierSat:
https://github.com/CalgaryToSpace?q=CTS-SAT-1
https://github.com/CalgaryToSpace/CTS-SAT-1-OBC-Firmware
See FrontierSat's in-house designed onboard computer PCB:
https://github.com/CalgaryToSpace/CTS-SAT-1-OBC-PCB
FrontierSat Payloads
Miniaturized Plasma Imager
FrontierSat is serving as a scientific platform for a Miniaturized Plasma Imager, developed at the University of Calgary by Dr. Johnathan Burchill.
The Miniaturized Plasma Imager is based on the ESA Swarm mission's thermal ion imagers and will investigate upper atmospheric ionized winds. In particular, it will investigate the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) -- a 25 km wide ribbon of hot plasma -- which was discovered in Alberta and named by University of Calgary researchers.
A version of the MPI has been flown on suborbital rockets, and the version aboard FrontierSat was adapted for long-term deployment on a compact satellite. This is the MPI's first on-orbit mission.
Pictured here is the MPI faceplate engraved with CalgaryToSpace team members' names.
Deployable Composite Lattice Boom
The boom was designed by Nick Elderfield at the University of Calgary as part of his PhD thesis and manufactured by the University's composite materials lab using a novel additive manufacturing technique. It was integrated aboard FrontierSat so its structural behaviour in space could be studied for the very first time.
