Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization Microsatellite Contest was successfully held in Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) from Oct.31 to Nov.1. This Contest is sponsored by Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), organized by APSCO-NPU Development Base for Aerospace Talent and School of Astronautics, NPU, co-organized by Belt and Road Aerospace Innovation Alliance (BRAIA). APSCO Microsatellite Contest has attracted over 10 countries’ participants from APSCO and BRAIA, involving 200 technical talents globally. After the preliminary contest, only 24 teams from 9 countries gain the qualifications for the final competition.

After two days’ contest, the project “Interconnection Cube— the 4s IoT Payload on Cubesat” designed by the team “Flying 4S” from National Defense Science and Technology University, China won the first prize. “Yareelo-nanosatellite constellation for Sun observation” by Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia and “High Resolution 3U CubeSat” by Mahanakorn University of Technology, Thailand were awarded the second prize. In the meanwhile, a team from Institute of Space Technology, Pakistan, a united team from Peru and an NPU team were the third prize winners.

Dr. Li Xinjun, the Scretary-Genenral of APSCO, highlighted the solid technical support provided by NPU to students and this contest. NPU is the only initiative unit and coordinating unit of European Union-QB50 microsatellites project in Asia. Within one year from 2016 to 2017, NPU launched three microsatellites and established the first satellite ground-control station in Shaanxi province.

This contest represents a new achievement of APSCO-NPU Development Base for Aerospace Talent, established by both sides in 2018. It is a good platform for participants to gain a better understanding of microsatellite design. This contest also offers great opportunity for all the teams and universities to know each other, to learn from each other and to cooperate with each other, especially in the field of aerospace. As a participant from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics said that the judges gave them constructive suggestions to improve their work.

Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Zhang Hailan delivered a welcome speech on the opening ceremony, and Prof. Zhang Weihong, Vice President of NPU gave remarks on the closing ceremony.