Australia's first Binar spacecraft just came down to Earth as a fireball. Here's what we learned

This weekend marked a milestone for Western Australia’s Binar Space Program as its first satellite Binar-1 lived up to its name.

Binar is the word for “fireball” in the Noongar language spoken by the Aboriginal people of Perth. Binar-1 became a real “Binar” as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the weekend. Although the chance of it being seen over Australia was low, with the right amount of luck it would have appeared as a shooting star in the night sky.

Binar-1 was built by a team of PhD students and engineers at Curtin University’s Space Science and Technology Centre. Its mission: a technology demonstration to test whether the innovative design – all systems integrated on a single circuit board at its core – would survive in space.