It is an optical astronomy spacecraft operated by the Graz University of Technology as part of the international BRIght-star Target Explorer programme.

TUGSAT-1 was manufactured by the University of Toronto based on the Generic Nanosatellite Bus, and had a mass at launch of 7 kilograms (15 lb)[2] (plus another 7 kg for the XPOD separation system).

[3] The satellite will be used, along with five other spacecraft, to conduct photometric observations of stars with apparent magnitude of greater than 4.0 as seen from Earth.

[6] The NLS spacecraft were secondary payloads on the rocket, whose primary mission was to deploy the Franco-Indian SARAL ocean research satellite.

Canada's Sapphire and NEOSSat-1 spacecraft, and the United Kingdom's STRaND-1, were also carried by the same rocket under separate launch contracts.