Universitetsky-Tatyana-2 was a small research and educational satellite mainly developed by Taiwan (National Cheng Kung University and National Central University) and Russia Moscow State University and launched on 17 September 2009 from Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket. This satellite was equally sponsored by Taiwan and Russia. Along with teamwork supported by Mexico and South Korea, the two Taiwanese institutions particularly contributed satellite computing systems, flight programmes as well as thermotic, magnetic, and digital data processing devices.

Mission objectives

The satellite was part of an international research and educational youth program of near-Earth space exploration. The mission's objectives were: Over the course of its mission, Universitetsky-Tatyana-2 detected over 1000 flashes in the Earth's atmosphere.

End of mission

The Universitetsky-Tatyana-2 spacecraft ended operations on 16 January 2010 due to a failure in the attitude control system.