ESTCube-1 is the first Estonian satellite and first satellite in the world to attempt to use an electric solar wind sail (E-sail). It was launched on 7 May, 2013, aboard Vega VV02 carrier rocket and successfully deployed into the orbit. The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10×10×11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
The mission officially ended on 17 February, 2015. At that time, data from the satellite was used in 29 bachelor's and 19 master's dissertations, 5 doctoral theses, and 4 start-ups. The deployment of the E-sail tether was unsuccessful, and thus no measurements were taken of the E-sail or of the plasma braking deployment system. The last signal from ESTCube-1 was received on 19 May, 2015.