University of Stuttgart

The University of Stuttgart, founded in 1829, is one of Germany's leading technical universities. Its Institute of Space Systems (Institut fur Raumfahrtsysteme, IRS) conducts research and education spanning spacecraft design, propulsion, and small satellite missions.

IRS's flagship small satellite program produced Flying Laptop, the institute's first minisatellite, launched in 2017 into a sun-synchronous orbit. Flying Laptop was developed almost entirely by students and researchers at IRS to demonstrate new small-satellite bus technologies while also carrying Earth observation and maritime surveillance payloads. The institute has since expanded its small satellite portfolio with the S-NET formation of nanosatellites.

IRS operates its own satellite ground station and mission control center in Stuttgart, giving students end-to-end experience across the full satellite lifecycle, from subsystem design and integration to launch operations and in-orbit commissioning.