NanoRacks began deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) of the remainder of our Orb-2 CubeSat Mission which includes 12 Planet Labs Doves. Of these Doves, ten are the remainder of Flock-1B launched on Orb-2, and two are the new Flock-1D’ Doves, launched on SpaceX CRS-5.
This was NanoRacks first deployment attempt since recent on-orbit repairs and we are excited to announce a successful first deploy.
At 8:30 a.m. CST on Friday, February 27th, NanoRacks commanded one deployer, releasing two of the Planet Labs Flock 1B Doves to low Earth orbit. Deployment commands will continue to run through March 5, 2015 when the deployment window closes.
NanoRacks has been working rigorously with NASA, JAXA, Roscosmos, and other ISS partners to repair the deployers currently on station. This repair work included crew installation of a new, simplified, commanding system for the deployers, and secondary latches to safe the deployers in case of any operational issues. The repair hardware was delivered in January on a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the latches were successfully installed on February 17, 2015 with the plan to deploy ten days later, on February 27.
“Over the last six months, NASA and JAXA have worked tirelessly with NanoRacks to ensure that the on-orbit hardware adaptations make our CubeSat deployers safe and ready for operations. It’s a testament to the ISS Program’s ability to cooperate with commercial partners and utilize the resource they have on orbit.” says NanoRacks External Payloads Account Manager Conor Brown.
We look forward to meeting growing customer demands, and continuing deployments from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer. NanoRacks is also launching a new small satellite deployment system, Kaber, to the International Space Station. Kaber will be delivered to ISS on the seventh SpaceX Cargo Resupply Mission and will support CubeSat-class satellites and large microsatellites weighing up to 100 kilograms.
