Article by: Andacs Robert Eugen, on 19 August 2022, at 09:32  am Los Angeles time

Nicknamed the "Space Sparrow", ROM-2 (Romania Orbital Mission) is a satellite of only 250 grams and is the first of its kind built in Romania. The engineering team is made up of nine Romanian students between the ages of 15 and 18.

The RomSpace team will travel to Glasgow to integrate their small satellite at the Alba Orbital facilities before it is sent to SpaceX for launch in the first quarter of 2023. ROM-2 or "Space Sparrow" is a radio satellite that also contains a camera of 2 megapixels for photographing the Earth from space.

"It's a real source of inspiration to see these students, some of them as young as 15, who have the motivation and initiative to launch their own satellite," said Alba Orbital's founder and CEO, Tom Walkinshaw.

He also says that microsatellites offer fantastic opportunities for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. 

"When I started to be interested in nano and picosatellite systems, more than three years ago, I knew that I would send one built by me in the near future. At first, I was impressed by the amount of technology that can fit in these small cubes", said the leader of the mission, Filip Buşcu.

Alba Orbital has in its portfolio collaborations with more than 30 clients from three continents, including some prestigious ones, such as Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and TU Delft.