Imagine sitting in a café on a sunny day, coffee in hand, impatiently waiting for a reply to a message you’ve just sent with your new smartphone. Minutes pass slowly, and the moments of anticipation just seem to stretch out. This everyday experience of waiting for a reply mirrors the tense wait at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhofen for a first message from DLR’s PIXL-I Cubesat. This communication took place via the ‘Cubesat Space Protocol’ – a special transmission protocol for small satellites – and the new European operating system for spaceflight, the EGS-CC ‘European Ground Systems – Common Core’, which is currently being developed. read more