Fernando Aguado

Prof. Dr. Fernando Aguado (MSc 1992, PhD 1996) is currently Associate Professor (accredited to Full Professor by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain since October 2016) at Signal Theory and Communication Department at Vigo University and since April 2016 is also the CTO and responsible for Space Projects of the recently established Galician Aerospace Centre (CINAE). Prof. Aguado’s main areas of interest are System Engineering for small satellites, Space communication, and small satellite constellations.

As head of the Space Activities, Prof. Aguado has coordinated: The Xatcobeo CubeSat, the first ever Galician satellite and Spanish Cubesat, developed in collaboration with INTA (Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology), and launched on February 2012). The HUMSAT Project and HumSat–D CubeSat (launched in November 2013), which was selected by the Space Office of the United Nations to be the core of the BSTI (Basic Space Technology Initiative) Programme, having the sponsorship of the ESA (European Space Agency) through the Programme GEOID (Genso Experimental Orbital Initial Demonstration) and the Fly your Satellite Initiative promoted by ESA. Prof. Aguado has been also the coordinator of the FemtoXat Project (1/3 Units CubeSat), the Sector B of the Brazilian Satellite SERPENS (Agencia Espacial Brasileira, launched in September 2015 and second HUMSAT satellite).

Prof. Aguado was also the principal investigator and coordinator of the development of the concept of operation of the Dustcube satellite, selected by the ESA within the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and the LUME-1 satellite developed within the FIRE-RS project financed by the European Union SUDOE-Interreg Programme. LUME-1 was launched on 27 December 2018 from the Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome on a Soyuz 2-1a Fregat rocket and it is currently fully operational.

As responsible for Space Projects at CINAE, Prof. Aguado is currently coordinating the design, manufacturing and integration of 3 satellites (1 2U Cubesat launched in December 2017 and 2 6U Cubesats to be launched in 1Q2020) for maritime and airplane tracking applications as well as for M2M communications through a constellation of 25 small satellites.

Through all the past and current projects, which have been successively recognized and supported by reference worldwide organization as UN, ESA or AEB. Prof. Aguado has created an outreach initiative, pioneer in Spain, in order to attract students to space activities, to promote the research accomplishments in this field and to create new space industry in Galicia (Spain). All projects have been developed within the ECSS Standards context, creating and establishing a new framework for Space Projects, as has been recognized by the European Space Agency.

Xatcobeo Project was awarded as Distinguished Citizen of Vigo in 2012. Prof. Aguado was recognized as Pontevedrés of the 2012 year in the category of Science and University. Prof. Aguado was inducted as Full Member Academician of the International Astronautic Academy (IAA) in July 2018.