Aist (satellite)

The Aist satellites, whose name is Russian for stork, are a series of Russian microsatellites developed mainly by students, postgraduates and researchers at Samara National Research University, formerly Samara State Aerospace University, in collaboration with TsSKB-Progress, now part of Roscosmos. The programme began in the early 2010s as an educational and cost-effective initiative, and its satellites are used for technology demonstration, Earth remote sensing and scientific experiments in low Earth orbit. The series includes Aist 1, Aist 2 and the more advanced Aist-2D, with later models such as Aist-2T planned for future launches.