Cubsats inadvertently released from ISS

Dear readers and followers,

few days ago, September 4th, two more of Planet Lab’s shoebox-sized Earth imaging satellites launched them selves from aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the latest in a series of technical mysteries involving a commercially owned CubeSat deployer located outside Japan’s Kibo laboratory module.

Credit image: NASA

Station commander Steve Swanson was storing some blood samples in one of the station’s freezers Friday morning when he noticed that the doors on NanoRack’s cubesat deployer were open, announced +NASA . Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston determined that two CubeSats had been inadvertently released. “No crew members or ground controllers saw the deployment. They reviewed all the camera footage and there was no views of it there either,” said NASA mission commentator Pat Ryan..

The satellites, owned by San Francisco-based Planet Labs, are part of a planned 100-member network designed to collect images of the entire Earth every 24 hours. So far, 12 of 32 CubeSats delivered to the space station aboard a Cygnus cargo ship in July have been deployed, including four launched inadvertently, said NanoRacks spokeswoman Abby Dickes. In addition to the two Planet Labs satellites launched Thursday night, two more of the company’s satellites were released accidentally August 23th, a NASA status report shows.

Credit image: NASA

The latest inadvertent deployment followed unsuccessful attempts Wednesday night to return NanoRack’s CubeSat dispenser to service. Troubleshooting efforts included Jiggling, the small robotic arm holding the dispense in an attempt to get its doors to open, Ryan added.

Flight control teams are assessing whether to bring the deployer back inside the station or to try to release the remaining CubeSats still awaiting launch.

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Amazing successful liftoff Atlas5 rocket with NROL-39 And 12 CubeSats

Credits: Matthew travis

You could find below the badge of the Atlas5 with NROL-39 mission

3 CubSats released from space station and orbited

Credit image : +NASA 

ESA's Vega launcher performes new success with commercials satellite and micro-satellite

Dear follower,

after the successful launch of +NASA few days ago, +European Space Agency, ESA scores a second flight with the newest launch vehicle, Vega from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Two Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V and Vietnam’s VNREDSat‑1A, were released into different orbits, demonstrating the rocket’s versatility. Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube‑1 technology demonstrator, was also released into orbit.

After releasing the first satellite Proba-V, the upper stage performed a third burn and the top half of the egg-shaped Vega Secondary Payload Adapter was ejected. After a fourth burn to circularize the orbit at an altitude of 704 km, VNREDSat-1A was released around 2 hours into flight. ESTCube‑1 was ejected from its dispenser few minutes later.

ESTCube-1 is Estonia’s first satellite. This 1.3 kg CubeSat was designed and built by students from the University of Tartu with a contribution from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It will deploy a 10 m-long tether to demonstrate electrostatic movement through the plasma flow, which could lead to electrostatic solar sails for propellant-less interplanetary travel.