Lessons Learned from the First Year of Operations of the PRETTY CubeSat for Future Small Satellite Missions

The Passive REflecTometry and dosimeTrY (PRETTY) spacecraft constitutes an innovative CubeSat mission which was launched in October 2023 with the purpose of achieving two principal scientific objectives: namely, performing passive reflectometer measurements by correlating direct and reflected Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals, and assessing radiation environment levels by means of a dosimeter. Despite the fact that the spacecraft was thoroughly tested on the ground, a number of challenges arose during the intensive commissioning phase, which had to be addressed in order to ensure the required data quality and, consequently, the success of the mission. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges encountered during the operations of the PRETTY spacecraft, including issues affecting various subsystems, payloads and satellite communications. It offers a detailed description of these problems, along with the identification of their root causes and the implementation of mitigation strategies. Additionally, it highlights the impact of these challenges on operations and the overall success of the mission.