LONDON, WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2026: Blue Skies Space has successfully achieved 'first light' with Mauve, beginning a new era in astronomical data delivery from small, rapidly built space telescopes. It marks the first time that a commercial space science satellite has successfully launched and sent back data to astronomers about our universe.
Mauve will study stars in the ultraviolet and visible light, enabling a greater understanding of their magnetic activity, powerful flares, and their impact on the habitability of exoplanets.
The satellite carries a 13 cm telescope and is designed to deliver spectrophotometric observations across the 200-700 nm range. Following launch on 28 November 2025, contact with the satellite was established, and commissioning activities were initiated. All spacecraft subsystems and the payload instruments have been powered on and are operational.
As part of early commissioning, Mauve was pointed at its first calibration target, eta Ursae Majoris (eta UMa), a bright star in the constellation Ursa Major, approximately 104 light-years from Earth, for a 5-second observation. Eta UMa is a hot, blue-white star, much hotter than our Sun. Eta UMa shines brightly in ultraviolet light, making it an ideal calibration target for a UV observatory like Mauve.
"Achieving first light with Mauve is a fantastic milestone. It's great to see Mauve perform brilliantly in orbit. Full instrument performance will be established over the coming weeks as we continue calibration and observe progressively fainter targets," said Ian Stotesbury, Lead Systems Engineer at Blue Skies Space.
Dr Arianna Saba, Science Performance Analyst at Blue Skies Space, commented: "We selected eta UMa, a well-observed B-type star, to capture 'first light'. Eta UMa exhibits a strong ultraviolet continuum and a pronounced Balmer jump, caused by the absorption of hydrogen atoms in the outer layers of the star's atmosphere. This is a perfect start to start calibrating Mauve's instrument."
