NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative has selected 33 small satellites (nanosatellites) as candidates to fly as secondary payloads on NASA-sponsored launches in 2013 and 2014.

The CubeSat is an international standard for small payloads. The small size of CubeSat payloads makes the form factor ideally suited for citizen-science missions. Most of the 33 candidates came from established research organizations such as universities and other NASA centers. One, however, came from a citizen-science organization: the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, better known as Amsat.

Other proposals came from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Air Force Research Lab, California Polytechnic State University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Montana State University, Naval Postgraduate School, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center, Saint Louis University, Salish Kootenai College, the Space and Missile Defense Command, Taylor University, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Hawaii, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, the University of North Dakota, the University of Texas at Austin, the US Air Force Academy, and Virginia Tech University. Some organizations submitted proposals for more than one satellite.

Eight CubeSats have been launched to date under NASA’s Launch Services Program Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNa, program. Five of those satellites were selected under the CubeSat Launch Initiative.

Written by Astro1 on February 17th, 2012 , Citizen Science (General)

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    Mike Hinkle commented

    If anyone in the Greater Houston Area has worked or is working on a Cubesat or other small-format satellite project, we invite you to exhibit it at the Houston Mini Maker Faire on Saturday Jan. 19, 2013. Full details of the event are at our web site, and you can register their to be an exhibitor (“maker”). We will follow up to address any questions. Thanks!

    Reply
    October 16, 2012 at 10:29 am