Aist 1 is operated by the Samara Aerospace University, who constructed it in partnership with TsSKB Progress.

[3] Aist1's primary technological mission objectives are demonstrating its systems and bus and investigating how to minimize acceleration caused by microgravitational effects.

[4] It will also measure micrometeoroid and microscopic orbital debris impacts, and test new sensors and techniques designed to study Earth's magnetic field.

[3] Aist 1 was launched aboard the maiden flight of TsSKB Progress' Volga upper stage equipped Soyuz-2-1v carrier rocket, from Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43[5][6] at 12:30 UTC on 28 December 2013,[7] following a series of delays.

Aist separated from the upper stage at 14:10 UTC, 100 minutes after liftoff.