Ad Astra et ad Terram

The Spei Satelles (Guardian of Hope) mission recently launched with the goal to have a message of hope encircle the earth.

The satellite, promoted by the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, was coordinated by the Italian Space Agency and the Polytechnic University of Turin. It launched aboard a SpaceX rocket which released it in space. Only about a foot long and weighing about six pounds, the tiny satellite has been placed in Low Earth Orbit (525 km).

The Dicastery for Communication noted that this was a continuation of the Vatican’s interest in science and space exploration. The satellite carries a recording of Pope Francis’ Statio Orbis, the urbi et orbi blessing he gave on March 27, 2020 at the height of COVID. It also has a nano-book (about 2mm) of a collection of images and fragments from the Statio Orbis.

A copy of the book has also been deposited at the world seed bank in the Svalbard Seed Vault.

For the next year, UHF radio can pick up the broadcast of Pope Francis’ recording beamed from the satellite on 437.5 MHz.

The logo of the mission, created by the students and teachers of the IUSVE Salesian University Institute in Venice, is full of symbolism: the circle of dots representing an orbital trace has 59 dots—the number of beads in a rosary; there are three stars, the first is a cross with curved sides, representing the presence of Christ, Lord of the Universe; the second is a 12-pointed star, representing Mary crowned with 12 stars in Revelation 12; the third is a triangle which recalls the pope climbing the steps of St. Peter’s Square alone during the Statio Orbis; three larger dots represent the Trinity and the triple announcement of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. The two S shapes, for Spei Satelles, resemble the planet and the satellite’s orbit around the planet, and represent the complementarity of earth and sky.

The little satellite isn’t going on any far mission. It’s offering hope and fraternity, sharing a time when the world was seemingly united in its desire for connection amidst a pandemic and is still needed now in a time of war and division. Spei Satelles will be circling the earth for 12 years, offering that message of hope to all. Good luck, little guardian!

You can follow the satellite, learn more about its mission, and even get a virtual boarding pass (it costs an act of charity) at www.speisatelles.org/en