Inside the small satellite is a microscopic silicon plate with the words and images of the “Statio Orbis” that Francis celebrated three years ago during the pandemic. It will take off on June 10 – aboard the Falcon 9 rocket – from the Vandenberg base in California. It will be launched into space at an altitude of 525 kilometers, and will transmit via an amateur radio band.
Vatican City () – On March 27, 2020, while the world was paralyzed and confused by the pandemic, Pope Francis presided over the “Statio Orbis” before the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square, inviting the world to look to the source of hope. Exactly three years later, in a context in which the war has given rise to new anxieties and fears, the Holy See today announced a symbolic gesture that intends to give continuity to that message.
The images and words that Francis pronounced that day -with his invitation to recognize all of us as children of the one Father in the stormy boat- will depart for space on June 10, in a mission promoted by the Holy See in collaboration with the Space Agency Italian. The CubeSat, a microsatellite developed by young students from the Turin Polytechnic, will be launched and into orbit. Inside, the CubeSat keeps a nanobook, a silicon microscopic plate that contains the volume “Why are they afraid? They still don’t have faith.” It is a document from the Vatican Dicastery for Communication with the contents of the historic moment presided over by Pope Francis on March 27, 2020. It was made in Italy at the National Research Center and measures less than two millimeters, but thanks to advanced technologies of micro and nanofabrication, it contains a transposition of the texts and images in a binary code readable in time.
The CubeSat has been nicknamed “Spei Satelles” playing on the meaning of the Latin term: “custodian of hope”. It will go aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and will be launched into space from the Vandenberg base in California. It measures just 34x10x10 cm and weighs less than 3 kg, with an outer surface covered in solar panels. The microsatellite also contains two UHF band communication systems through which Pope Francis’ messages of hope are transmitted in a band that can be received by any radio amateur from anywhere in the world.
The initiative is accompanied by the website www.speisatelles.org through which you can “participate” in the mission in a very original way. As is the case with many space launches, anyone will be able to sign in with a special boarding pass. But in this case, the participant -in addition to indicating her name- must write a work of mercy that they agree to carry out on Earth so that there is hope and brotherhood for everyone in the world. The annotation will be entered into a chip that will fly aboard the Spei Satelles. “Your name will be written in heaven because you have chosen to sow hope on earth,” the organizers explain.
