The Vatican plans to send a “nano-book” with Pope Francis’ message of hope into space in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea is to transmit the pontiff’s words into space and put the miniature digital book into orbit at an altitude of 525 km. The “nano-book” will be sent into a rectangular satellite of about thirty centimeters, called “CubeSat,” by a Falcon 9 rocket of the SpaceX company that will take off on June 10 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, USA.
The e-book, barely 2 mm in size, was designed by students from the Polytechnic School of Turin (Italy) and contains the Pope’s moving speech delivered in March 2020 before a completely empty St. Peter’s Square and under a relentless rain. In his speech, the Pope called on the world to show solidarity and unity in the face of the pandemic. The project, called “Spei Satelles” (“Satellite of Hope” in Latin), has been carried out jointly by the Vatican, the Italian Space Agency, and several Italian institutions.
The budget of the project has not been disclosed, but the idea is to send this important speech “beyond the terrestrial borders so that it reaches through space the greatest possible number of women and men who are in difficulty on our planet,” said the president of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia. It is an unprecedented initiative since the satellite will transmit a radio signal that will be perceptible to any radio amateur in the world.
In short, the Vatican will send into space a “nano-book” with Pope Francis’ message of hope delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2 mm-sized e-book will be sent on a rectangular satellite and launched into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 10. The initiative, called “Spei Satelles,” has been carried out jointly by the Vatican, the Italian Space Agency, and several Italian institutions and aims to send the Pope’s important speech “beyond terrestrial borders” to reach as many people as possible facing difficulties on our planet.