Hermes-sp

15/03/2025

📢Today, March 15, 2025 (7:39 CET), the HERMES Pathfinder mission (https://www.hermes-sp.eu) was successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, as part of the Transporter-13 mission. 🚀

The HERMES constellation, composed of six 3U CubeSat nanosatellites, was delivered into a Sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 510 km altitude, as planned in the mission profile. Over the coming days, the satellites will be gradually released into orbit from D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier platform, with one satellite deployed per day.

HERMES Pathfinder is an international project led by Italy, coordinated by INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), involving numerous research institutions and universities:

🔹 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
🔹 Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
🔹 Politecnico di Milano
🔹 Università degli studi di Pavia
🔹 UniCa - Università degli Studi di Cagliari
🔹 Fondazione Bruno Kessler
🔹 INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
🔹 Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
🔹 Università degli Studi di Udine
🔹 Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP), CAS, China

Additional partners of the HERMES Scientific Pathfinder project include: FPM, Skylabs, University of Nova Gorica, Aalta-lab, ELTE, C3S, Masaryk University, Konkoly Observatory, and DEIMOS.

The HERMES Pathfinder mission aims to probe the temporal variability of X-ray radiation emitted by high-energy cosmic transients, such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and electromagnetic counterparts of Gravitational Wave Events (GWEs). Thanks to a new generation of miniaturized detectors mounted aboard a constellation of nanosatellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), HERMES Pathfinder will open new avenues in the study of extreme astrophysical phenomena.

Scientific coordination of the project is led by Dr. Fabrizio Fiore, Director of INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, who emphasizes:

“With HERMES Pathfinder, Italy confirms its leading role in high-energy space science. This mission demonstrates the potential of small satellite constellations for astrophysical research, opening new perspectives in the observation of the Universe and in international collaboration.”

The mission control center is managed by ALTEC in Turin, while the science operations center is located at ASI’s scientific data center. Ground support is provided by two dedicated stations: one in Italy (Spino d’Adda) and one in Australia (Katherine), operated by an international consortium funded by the EC project AHEAD2020, comprising INAF as well as the University of Tasmania, the The University of Melbourne , and Masaryk University.

11/03/2025

🚀 NEWS - Hermes Launch Delay Update (March 14, 23:39 Pacific / March 15, 06:39 UTC)

The launch of the Hermes mission has experienced a slight delay and is now officially rescheduled for March 15, 2025, at 06:39 UTC (07:39 Central European Time). ⏰

According to the latest update provided by the Hermes mission team, the deployment of the ION is scheduled to occur at precisely 07:38:51.53 UTC. The updated orbital parameters for the ION upon release are as follows:

Perigee Altitude: 504.504 km
Apogee Altitude: 518.565 km
Inclination: 97.442°
Local Time of Ascending Node (LTAN): 10:20:35.666972
Argument of Perigee: 78.026°
Longitude of Ascending Node: 40.770°
Mean Anomaly: -77.744°

Despite this minor schedule adjustment, the mission remains on track to achieve its scientific and technological objectives. 🎯 Further updates will be provided as they become available.

03/03/2025

🚀 Launch Date Update! 🚀

The new Launch Time has been updated to Sunday, March 15, 2025, at 07:39 CET.

Stay tuned for further updates! 🔥

28/02/2025

Il 6 marzo alle ore 10:00 presso la sede dell’ASI L’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, in collaborazione con l’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) e il Politecnico di Milano, organizza il workshop “Lancio […]

25/02/2025

🔥 🚀 THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN! 🚀 🔥

The HERMES Pathfinder is ready for launch! 🛰️
📌Mark your calendars: Liftoff scheduled for 7:39 AM Italian Time on March 15, 2025!

🚀 Where? Aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-13 mission, launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA.

🎥 How to watch? Tune in to the LIVE stream on our website (https://www.hermes-sp.eu) and witness history in the making!

🌌 This mission is a major milestone for HERMES-SP, paving the way for cutting-edge space research. Don’t miss it!

🔴 Stay tuned, spread the word, and get ready for launch!

🚀🔥

🗓️ Note: The launch is scheduled for 06:39:00 UTC on March 15, 2025, which corresponds to 7:39 AM Italian Time.

03/01/2025

📢🚀HERMES PATHFINDER SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH ON BOARD TRANSPORTER 13 ON MARCH 15, 2025 🛰️🚀

SpaceX has confirmed that Transporter 13 is scheduled for launch at 06:39:00 UTC on March 15, 2025 (7:39 AM Italian time, still March 14 in California time), from the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB), California, USA. The six HERMES Pathfinder 3U cubesats will be integrated into D-Orbit ION at the beginning of February 2025 at VSFB. Later, ION will be integrated into the SpaceX Falcon 9. The liftoff is scheduled at 01:06:47 UTC. ION is foreseen to be released in a Sun Synchronous Orbit with an altitude of 512-522 km, an inclination of 97.436 degrees, and an LTAN of 10:30 ± 10 minutes. The HERMES Pathfinder constellation will be released starting from one week later, one satellite per day.

The HERMES Pathfinder Mission Operation Center is handled by Altec Torino, and the Scientific Operation Center is hosted by ASI Space Science Data Center. Two dedicated Ground Stations will support the operation, one at Spino D’Adda in Italy and a second in Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia.

The six HERMES Pathfinder satellites have been integrated and tested at Politecnico di Milano facilities in Milano. The six X-ray/gamma-ray payloads have been integrated, tested, and calibrated at INAF-IAPS and Fondazione Bruno Kessler facilities in Roma and Trento. Environmental mechanical tests have been performed at Politecnico di Milano facilities, thermal vacuum tests at Thales Alenia Space’s Gorgonzola facility and INAF-IAPS’s facility.

Three of the six HERMES Pathfinder flight units were developed under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program, HERMES-Scientific Pathfinder project (GA 821896). Three flight units were realized under the framework of the ASI contracts HERMES-Technological Pathfinder. The Katherine Ground Station is managed by the University of Tasmania in the framework of an agreement with INAF, the University of Melbourne, and Masaryk University, and it is mostly funded by the EC INFRAIE project AHEAD2020 (GA 871158).

We look forward to hearing soon the first HERMES Pathfinder whispering from space!

👉 https://www.hermes-sp.eu/?p=10659

24/04/2024

📢FIRST LIGHT FOR THE HERMES SPACE TELESCOPE ON BOARD SPIRIT 🛰️

The University of Melbourne, the Italian Space Agency, Australian Space Agency and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics have announced the successful scientific operations of the HERMES Pathfinder space telescope instrument on board the SpIRIT satellite.

The space telescope earlier this year successfully collected light particles known as photons during a brief observation lasting about 10 minutes – a significant milestone astronomers call “first light” (see Figure 1).

The nanosatellite has been operating in a Polar orbit 513 km above Earth for more than 120 days since its launch on 1December 2023.

The HERMES Pathfinder is designed to scan the sky searching for bursts of gamma rays, which are created when stars die or collide and for a moment emit more energy than an entire galaxy.

These observations can only be performed by space telescopes and are crucial to advance our understanding of extreme physics and potentially unveil observational signatures of quantum gravity that, if found, will help unify the laws of physics.

SpIRIT is the first in a planned network of seven nanosatellites that will each carry the HERMES Pathfinder telescope. The Italian Space Agency is set to launch the other six nanosatellites in the next 12 months. This constellation of space telescopes will be able to simultaneously scan the sky for elusive gamma rays and pinpoint their origin by cross-correlating the signals received by each telescope.

Thanks to an efficient design and advances in low-noise high-performance detectors, the HERMES Pathfinder weighs just over 1.5kg and fits a cube with 10cm sides, yet it is almost as sensitive as state-of-the-art instruments a hundred times larger, such as the 115kg Fermi/Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, on massive satellites.

As SpIRIT was entrusted to carry the first telescope in the constellation, achieving its in-orbit operations is a significant milestone for the whole HERMES Pathfinder project.

👉https://www.hermes-sp.eu/?p=10621

Credits: ASI, University of Melbourne

02/12/2023

🚀🛰️ Lift-off for SpIRIT: an australian-italian success in space!🌌🌍

🛰️ The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal nanosatellite (SpIRIT for short), an Australian-Italian 🇦🇺🇮🇹collaborative project, has successfully lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch marks a significant leap in space research and industry, particularly for Australia and Italy.

🙌The The University of Melbourne and ASI-Agenzia Spaziale Italiana spearheaded the SpIRIT mission, Australia’s first satellite to be supported by the Australian Space Agency.

🚀Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on December 1, 2023, at 7:19 pm CET, SpIRIT successfully entered a polar orbit 513 km above Earth.

📡The initial communications have been established and we’ve received the first beacon signals from SpIRIT.

🌟The HERMES X-ray detector is engineered to detect gamma-ray bursts, which are the incredibly energetic events following the death or collision of stars.

💪The Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) has played a crucial role in the development of the HERMES X-ray detector.

📝Under the scientific coordination of Dr. Fabrizio Fiore, INAF contributed significantly to the technological and scientific advancements of the project. Dr. Fiore, in his statement, expressed excitement over the rapid transition of the HERMES instrument from concept to reality in just over four years, highlighting the thrilling prospects of observing the first photons in orbit thanks to this international collaboration.

✨This successful launch has been celebrated by leaders in the space industry, including Professor Michele Trenti of the University of Melbourne and Dr. Teodoro Valente of the Italian Space Agency. The project also received praise from Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space Agency, for demonstrating Australia’s prowess in intelligent spacecraft design and the capacity for substantial scientific contributions on a global scale.

👉 for more details: https://www.hermes-sp.eu/?p=10597

👉 original media release:https://bpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.unimelb.edu.au/dist/f/430/files/2023/12/SpIRIT-Launch-MR-Final-02.12.23.pdf

Credits: ESA, ASI, University of Melbourne

The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal nanosatellite (SpIRIT for short), an Australian-Italian collaborative project, has successfully lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch marks a significant leap in space research and industry, particularly for Australia and Italy. The....

06/11/2023

📢 📝 “The HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Pathfinder mission aims to develop a constellation of nanosatellites to study astronomical transient sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, in the X and soft energy range, exploiting a novel inorganic scintillator. This study presents the results obtained describing, with an empirical model, the unusually intense and long-lasting residual emission of the GAGG:Ce scintillating crystal after irradiating it with high energy protons (70 MeV) and ultraviolet light ( 300 nm). From the model so derived, the consequences of this residual luminescence for the detector performance in operational conditions has been analysed. The suitability of this detector for the HERMES Pathfinder nanosatellites was demonstrated by the low contribution of the afterglow, 1–2 pA at peak, to the input current of the front-end electronics.”

The HERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Pathfinder mission aims to develop a constellation of nanosatellites to study astronomic…

10/10/2023

📢The SpIRIT nanosatellite 🛰️ is beginning its journey to orbit and has left Australia for the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to be blasted into orbit 550km above the Earth on a Space X Falcon-9 rocket later this year. 🚀

SpIRIT is the first Australian satellite to carry a foreign space agency’s scientific instrument as its main payload – the Italian Space Agency’s HERMES X-ray detector to search for gamma rays, which are created when stars die or collide and for a moment emit more energy than an entire galaxy.
SpIRIT will be part of a network of six satellites looking for the elusive rays as part of the HERMES Scientific Pathfinder Constellation mission.

Dr Fabrizio Fiore, Scientific Co-ordinator of the HERMES Scientific Pathfinder Constellation, Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), said: “The X-ray and gamma ray spectrometer developed by INAF and its collaborators is a miniaturised by highly innovative payload, which will open the way to the realization of a sensitive and affordable all-sky monitor for high-energy transients such as gamma ray bursts and the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events. SpIRIT will thus be a crucial step in the path to bring multi-messenger astrophysics to maturity.”

👉 https://www.hermes-sp.eu/?p=10584