A greeting from Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite was transmitted via LituanicaSAT-1. Grybauskaite may be the first head of state to send a message via an Amateur Radio satellite -- her country's first. Using a handheld radio and the call sign LY5N, she transmitted through the satellite’s FM voice transponder. Her words, “Greetings to all Lithuanians around the world!” were recorded on a memory chip in the satellite, and the message was successfully transmitted from space on March 22.

Last year Grybauskaite visited the Science Communication and Information Center at Vilnius University and got to see the LituanicaSAT-1 CubeSat, then being readied for its trip into space. LituanicaSAT-1 was launched to the International Space Station on January 9 and deployed into orbit with other Amateur Radio satellites on February 28.

The tiny satellite, measuring just 10 x 10 x 10 cm and weighing slightly more than 1 kg, carries a VGA camera and a 145/435 MHz FM Amateur Radio voice transponder, designed and built by Lithuanian radio amateurs. — Thanks to AMSAT News Service, AMSAT-UK