National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and NASA supported CubeSats are booked to launch on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 8:49 am EDT (5:49 am PDT) Thursday, October 8, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Advertisement
An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday to put a classified spy satellite and 13 tiny experimental spacecraft into orbit for the US government.
Four of the CubeSats are NASA-sponsored and nine are NRO-sponsored, one of which was developed with NASA funding. The mission is ULA’s 10th of 2015 and the 101st since the company was founded in December 2006.
The National Reconnaissance Office is a USA government agency in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining intelligence satellites. “Our ultimate goal is to promote small spacecraft as a paradigm shift for NASA and the larger space community”.
Three of the NRO cubesats are part of a project called SNaP-3, “whose mission is to develop user software-defined radios to provide beyond-line-of-sight communication for disadvantaged users in remote locations”, according to an NRO fact sheet.
For example, two of the NRO cubesats, known as AeroCube-5C and AeroCube-7, will test out tracking and laser-communications technologies. (1.5 kilograms) apiece, NRO officials said. “CubeSats are a great way to inspire innovation and cool science”.
NASA’s CubeSats are the first to be designed and fabricated by Alaskan students and students from Native American tribal colleges. This miniature spacecraft will characterize the thermal and vibration conditions experienced during launch and help test out new cubesat control and communications systems. “For our antenna, you can see we have (an extended) tape measure, it works for UHF connections”. The launch will take place at Vandenberg.
AMSAT Fox-1, which also weighs 2.2 lbs. was developed by the Maryland-based Radio Amateur Satellite Corp.
“NRO and NASA have a long-standing partnership with regard to CubeSats, where we exchange ride-share opportunities when available”, Meagan Hubbell, deputy chief of the NRO’s CubeSat office, told reporters before launch.
Advertisement
NROL-55 is the 58th Atlas V mission since the vehicle’s inaugural launch in 2002.
