cubesat
With cash infusion, Capella prepares its first SAR cubesat
An undisclosed customer is paying Capella Space $10 million upfront to gain access to the San Francisco startup’s Synthetic Aperture Radar data stream.
Industry remains optimistic about continued growth of cubesats
Despite concerns about reliability and access to launch vehicles, the small satellite industry expects the number of cubesats to continue to grow as they find new applications.
Report endorses greater use of cubesats for science missions
A National Academies report recommends that NASA and the National Science Foundation make greater use of cubesats for science missions, while also centralizing the management of NASA’s diverse cubesat efforts.
NASA seeks to purchase cubesat buses
NASA plans to purchase as many as five cubesat buses it will use to demonstrate new technologies while also stimulating the emerging smallsat industry.
Spaceflight offers smallsat launch services on government contract schedule
A Seattle company that provides launch services for small satellites is now able to sell to U.S. government agencies through a standard contract schedule.
Experimental NASA Cubesat Suffers Attitude Control Problem
The attitude control problem is preventing the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) spacecraft's laser communications payload from being tested.
NASA Developing Solar-sailing Cubesats for Inaugural SLS Launch
NASA is developing a pair of solar-sailing, science-collecting cubesats that will hitch a ride on the Space Launch System’s inaugural July 2018 launch.
Asteroid-mining Company’s 1st Spacecraft Deploys
The International Space Station deployed a three-unit cubesat from its satellite dispenser for a 90-day mission meant help an aspiring asteroid-mining company make progress toward its long-term goal of extracting resources from space rocks.
Spire Raises $40 Million For Weather Satellite Constellation
Spire, a company developing a constellation of cubesats to provide weather data to commercial and government customers, announced June 30 it has raised $40 million to complete work on the satellites and begin launching them later this year.
Government Agencies Differ on Use, Usefulness of Cubesats
As interest in the use of cubesats continues to grow, U.S. government agencies are taking very different approaches regarding their use, with some openly embracing them as useful scientific tools and others more skeptical about their effectiveness.
NOAA Cubesat Caught in Crossfire Between Congress, White House
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s plan to launch an experimental weather cubesat in 2016 is in doubt because the agency staked funding for the effort to a program that fared poorly in recent budget bills.
In NASA First, Cubesats Headed to Mars with InSight Lander
Two tiny cubesats, the first NASA plans to send to another planet, will keep watch on the agency’s InSight mission as it descends to the Martian surface in September 2016, an agency official said June 9.
Planetary Society Has a Year To Iron Wrinkles out of Solar Sail Mission
The Planetary Society has roughly a year to digest lessons from its successful but far form perfect solar sail deployment before the 2016 launch of its second LightSail satellite.
Scotland Lures Smallsat Builder Spire to Glasgow with Grant
Small-satellite builder Spire of San Francisco has received a grant from the Scottish government to build nano-satellite design and production plant in Glasgow that will create 50 new jobs.
