Waratah Seed-1: Australia’s First Commercial Ride Share Satellite

The success of the WS-1 represents a significant advancement in Australia’s space sector by offering an affordable, commercial ride-share platform for inorbit technology demonstrations. This paper summarises the results of the in-orbit experimental results of the WS-1 satellite, which has been operational for the past 12 months. We will discuss the overall mission objectives, key results from the demonstrations, and specific challenges encountered during operations. Additionally, we will outline the lessons learned from system integration, payload integration, and in-orbit testing, offering valuable insights for future satellite missions and technology validation efforts.