The first were the Russians, with Sputnik, then it was the United States with Explorer 1. Then it was Australia, Canada, Italy and France. And finally Spain would arrive, with the INTASAT satellite to join the list of countries with satellites in space.
He November 15, 1974, 50 years ago, A milestone was marked in the history of Spanish space science and technology. That day, the first satellite designed and built entirely in Spain, INTASAT, was launched and put into orbit.
It was a microsatellite 24.5 Kg weight in the shape of a 12-sided polyhedron and just under half a meter high. On board there were two experiments, one scientific and the other technological. Its main experiment, the ionospheric beacon, made it possible to calculate the total electron content along the satellite’s trajectory and observe irregularities in this layer of the atmosphere.
One of the keys that made it possible was the creation in Spain, in 1963, of the National Commission for Research in Space (CONIE). Its president, Luis Pueyo, commissioned the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) the manufacture of the first Spanish satellite to teach Spanish engineers how to design and build more satellites.
Thus was born a group of young aeronautical and telecommunications engineers from INTA, along with some others from Construcciones Aeronáuticas, led by José M. Dorado, who became the pioneers of the development of the Spanish space sector.
Since that moment, Spain has developed scientific satellite programs focused mainly on a small size, such as the Intasat Program itself, Minisat, Nanosat or Microsat. Added to this is the design and construction of numerous instruments that have been part of space explorationlike the rovers that reached Mars and has built the world’s first exclusive astrobiology center, the CAB.