Have you ever dreamed of implementing your own CubeSat mission but did not know where to start? Have you imagined being part of a mission that will operate a CubeSat in orbit?

ESA’s Education Office is inviting university students to apply for the CubeSat Hands-On Training Week 2026. This event offers a rare chance to strengthen both theoretical understanding and practical skills related to spacecraft hardware and software. The Training Week will be held from the 8th to 12th June at ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Facility in ESEC-Galaxia, Transinne, Belgium.

This training week is a unique opportunity for university students to gain practical experience with CubeSats and to apply the theoretical notions they have learnt in academic courses. Working in pairs, students will have the opportunity to experiment on the Educational Satellite (ESAT), a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm model similar to a 1U CubeSat developed by Theia Space, with the specific aim of providing university students with practical experience. They will learn how different subsystems work and interact with each other, discover how to conduct Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV), and how to handle tests using real hardware. The goal is to support students developing innovative ideas for educational CubeSat missions or working on CubeSat projects in their early conceptual or preliminary stage. By the end of the training, participants will be able to apply the new knowledge to the initial design phases of their own CubeSat initiatives.

The focus throughout the Training Week will be on hands-on learning with ‘’lab sessions’’ supervised by staff from Theia Space, which will be preceded by lectures covering the various fields of CubeSat subsystems, testing and operations, delivered by ESA experts. As such, this training week is an ideal introduction to the Fly Your Satellite! programme.

This edition of the course will include 15 participants from Africa, selected as part of the broader African Union–European Union strategic partnership. AfSA and ESA are jointly leading the Space Partnership Programme (SPP), which supports both upstream (technology, satellite manufacturing) and downstream (applications, data services) sectors. The programme includes interconnected components focusing on industrial cooperation and private sector development, academic and research collaboration, and policy dialogue and institutional capacity-building. The SPP is guided by three specific objectives:

Enhance the African institutional and innovation space cooperation framework, including gender-sensitive outreach on the benefits of space;
Enhance the capacity to produce and deliver space-based services and applications, data and information, for early warning systems related to hazardous weather or climate events;
Strengthen the African space private sector ecosystem and industrial cooperation.

Before arriving to ESEC-Galaxia, the selected students will be asked to complete up to 5 hours of preparatory work, including reading material and exercises, to better prepare for this Training Week. A Q/A session with the experts will be scheduled the week before the Training to solve any doubt the students might have about the content of the preparatory material.

Preliminary Schedule

Day 1	Welcome and Introduction Fly Your Satellite! Programme and System Engineering Principles - Lecture Introduction to ESAT model - Lab Session Electrical Power System (EPS) - Lecture & Lab Session
Day 2	Software – Lecture & Lab Session On-Board Data Handling (OBDH) - Lecture
Day 3	On-Board Data Handling (OBDH) - Lab Session Attitude Determination Control System (ADCS) - Lecture Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) & Testing – Lecture
Day 4	ADCS – Lab Session AIV & Testing – Lab Session Spacecraft Communications – Lecture & Lab Session
Day 5	Spacecraft Operations - Lecture & Lab Session Conclusion

About the training

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