NASA astronaut Chris Williams pointed a camera out a window on the cupola as a set of CubeSats were deployed outside the Kibo laboratory module by a small satellite orbital deployer into Earth orbit. Students from Mexico, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan designed the shoe-boxed satellites for a series of Earth observations and technology demonstrations. CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites – small spacecraft […]
Category: CubeSats
- Ames Research Center
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Pioneers
- CubeSats
- Exoplanet Science
- Exoplanet Transits
- Exoplanets
- Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Infrared Light
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Kepler / K2
- SmallSats Program
- Stars
- Studying Exoplanets
- TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
- The Universe
- Visible / Optical Light
NASA’s Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond
A new NASA spacecraft called Pandora is awaiting launch ahead of its journey to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, and their stars. Along for the ride are two shoebox-sized satellites called BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) and SPARCS (Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat), as NASA innovates with ambitious science […]
NASA’s Two-in-One Satellite Propulsion Demo Begins In-Space Test
NASA is working with commercial partners to create high-performing, reliable propulsion systems that will help small spacecraft safely maneuver in orbit, reach intended destinations across the solar system, and accomplish mission operations. Two new micropropulsion technologies are being tested in space onboard a CubeSat called DUPLEX (Dual Propulsion Experiment) that deployed into low Earth orbit […]
What is BioSentinel?
Editor’s Note: This article was updated Nov. 21, 2025 shortly after BioSentinel’s mission marked three years of operation in deep space. Astronauts live in a pretty extreme environment aboard the International Space Station. Orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth in the weightlessness of microgravity, they rely on commercial cargo missions about every two months to deliver new […]
NASA’s EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets
Under the nighttime California sky, NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 p.m. PDT on March 14. Taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, the EZIE mission’s trio of small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string configuration approximately 260 to 370 miles above Earth’s surface to […]