PRETTY - ESA's GNSS Reflectometry CubeSat - Design and configuration of the payload

Kurzfassung

The PRETTY CubeSat In-Orbit Demonstrator (IOD) Mission has been finally launched on 9th October 2023 into a Sun-Synchrounous Orbit (SSO) in 560km height. The 3U CubeSat hosts two scientific payloads, a radiation dosimeter and a novel GNSS-Reflectometry payload. The GNSS-reflectometer will be measuring earth surface under grazing elevation angles at the L5 frequency, in order to obtain altimetric heights under various surface conditions (sea, sea ice, ...). The measurements will be done mainly with the interferometric approach (although, clean replica measurements are supported). An Algorithm Theoretical Baseline Description (ATBD) has been created within the scientific consortium and first simulation results have been created. For this presentation we will focus on the status of the satellite and present the first results obtained from space.