{"id":2056,"date":"2026-01-30T11:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/penn-state-leads-successful-launch-of-nasa-funded-x-ray-observatory\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:01:49","slug":"penn-state-leads-successful-launch-of-nasa-funded-x-ray-observatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/penn-state-leads-successful-launch-of-nasa-funded-x-ray-observatory\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Leads Successful Launch of NASA-Funded X-Ray Observatory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1769753724210_639053505284806877.webp\" width=\"712\" height=\"390\" alt=\"Penn State Leads Successful Launch of NASA-Funded X-Ray Observatory\" class=\"imageload removeImageattr\" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1769753724210_639053505284806877.webp\" style=\"opacity: 0.784281;\"><meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1769753724210_639053505284806877.webp\"><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"712\"><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"390\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>BlackCAT&nbsp;<\/strong>(the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) is an X-ray space telescope integrated into a 6U CubeSat&nbsp;bus by <strong>Kongsberg NanoAvionics&nbsp;<\/strong>(NanoAvionics) to detect and study high-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) that happen when massive stars collapse into black holes or when neutron stars collide. It successfully launched aboard <strong>SpaceX<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cTwilight\u201d rideshare mission on 11 January 2026 to a 600-kilometer dawn-dusk orbit. NanoAvionics\u2019 mission control established two-way communication with the spacecraft soon after launch, receiving healthy telemetry, including confirmation of solar panel deployment and nominal power levels.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite mission is NASA-funded and led by Penn State University, where the payload was designed and built. It also includes flight software contributions from researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).<\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-layout related-content-also-read-box my-3\">\n<h4 class=\"mb-0\">Also Read: Kongsberg NanoAvionics Launches Hyperspectral 6U CubeSat for Japan\u2019s IHI Corporation<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>BlackCAT expects to detect dozens of GRBs each year, pinpoint their locations, and transmit real-time alerts to the ground via the Iridium satellite network. These alerts will allow rapid follow-up by other observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will help scientists to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>map cosmic reionization, a period when the universe transitioned from darkness to light.<\/li>\n<li>measure ionizing radiation escaping from early galaxies.<\/li>\n<li>study how metals formed in the early universe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>BlackCAT will also help locate electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events, complementing research from facilities such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Capturing the bright afterglow from X-rays to radio waves will enable <em>\u201cmultimessenger\u201d<\/em> studies, combining signals across different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to reveal the physics behind these rare cosmic events. Despite its small size, BlackCAT\u2019s soft X-ray sensitivity and real-time alerts make it a powerful new tool for time-sensitive transient astronomy.<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong>Atle W\u00f8llo<\/strong><strong>, CEO of Kongsberg NanoAvionics,&nbsp;<\/strong>said: \u201cThis mission fits into NanoAvionics\u2019 proven track record of building satellites for leading research organizations globally, including NASA\u2019s ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System), which successfully demonstrated deployment of a new composite boom design, and NinjaSat, an X-ray observatory for Japan\u2019s research institute RIKEN, among many others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BlackCAT&nbsp;(the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) is an X-ray space telescope integrated into a 6U CubeSat&nbsp;bus by Kongsberg NanoAvionics&nbsp;(NanoAvionics) to detect and study high-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) that happen when massive stars collapse into black holes or when neutron stars collide. It successfully launched aboard SpaceX\u2019s \u201cTwilight\u201d rideshare mission on 11 January 2026 to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,25,20],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-launch","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}