Tag: CubeSats
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Pale Red Dot: NASA’s MarCO probe snaps first picture of Mars taken by a CubeSat
Mars shows up as a pale red dot on a picture taken by one of NASA’s twin MarCO spacecraft on Oct. 2. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Photo) Mars looks like nothing more than a reddish speck in a picture captured by one of NASA’s twin MarCO spacecraft, but…
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Virgin Orbit nears first test flights with air-launched rocket
Virgin Orbit’s carrier aircraft, named “Cosmic Girl,” flies with a newly-installed rocket pylon under its left wing. Credit: Virgin Orbit LONG BEACH, California — The attachment of a mounting bracket for Virgin Orbit’s smallsat launcher under the wing of a modified passenger jetliner portends the start of a series of captive carry tests with a…
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Spaceflight preps for first launch of unique orbiting satellite deployers
Artist’s illustration of the SSO-A mission’s free flyers separating from the upper stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Spaceflight Engineers working for Spaceflight, a Seattle-based launch services company, are in the final steps of preparing for the first launch of new robotic free flyers carrying more than 70 small government and commercial satellites into…
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Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 0030 GMT on Aug. 16 (8:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 15) after the end of the spacewalk. Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev prepares to release a nanosatellte on Wednesday’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Clad in pressurized spacesuits, two Russian cosmonauts headed outside the International Space Station on Wednesday and hand-released four tiny…
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‘Smallsats are big’: NASA official details initiatives to boost tiny science satellites
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate, gives a keynote address at the SmallSat Conference in Logan, Utah. (NASA Photo via Twitter) LOGAN, Utah — NASA is already deep into small-satellite science, but today the space agency’s associate administrator for science signaled that NASA will be getting in even deeper. “We think, in…
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How small satellites tackle big challenges, from orbital manufacturing to exoplanets
An artist’s conception shows the HaloSat X-ray-detecting mini-telescope against a background of stars and nebulas. (HaloSat / Univ. of Iowa Illustration) LOGAN, Utah — No one has ever built a satellite in space, but thanks in part to a team of students from Idaho, that could soon change. Other teams are building miniaturized satellites to look…
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Weather-monitoring and tech demo CubeSats deployed in orbit
Artist’s illustration of the RainCube spacecraft released from the International Space Station on July 13. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Fifteen CubeSats owned by NASA, Spire Global, and U.S. research institutions launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship in May have been released into orbit, beginning missions to demonstrate miniaturized, low-cost Earth science instruments and join a…
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Scotland site selected as launch base for Lockheed Martin, Orbex
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated July 17 with Rocket Lab statement. Artist’s concept of a rocket lifting off from the U.K.’s first vertical orbital launch site in northern Scotland. Credit: Lockheed Martin Two companies — U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and British start-up Orbex — seeking to carve out a share of the burgeoning small satellite launch market…
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Cygnus cargo ship released from space station, heads for extended mission
The Cygnus supply ship flies away from the International Space Station after release from Canadarm 2 on Sunday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Closing out 52 days at the International Space Station, an automated Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft left the research outpost Sunday to climb into a higher orbit for deployment of six CubeSats and…
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Live coverage: Cygnus supply ship departs space station
Live coverage of Northrop Grumman’s ninth operational Cygnus resupply flight to the International Space Station. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.