On October 26, 2005, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the Austrian Space Program ASAP - an impulse program of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) - decided on a project proposed by the Institute for Communication Networks and Satellite Communication (IKS) at Graz University of Technology to promote the construction of the first Austrian satellite. The ambitious project has set itself the goal of developing, building, launching and successfully operating an Austrian satellite for the first time.

After an intensive construction and test phase, the launch took place on February 25, 2013 from the Indian space centre in Sriharikota. Although the mission duration of 2 years has already been exceeded, the satellite is still delivering high-quality images and scientific data.