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Kennedy Space Center

Mini-satellites getting to be a big deal at Kennedy Space Center

James Dean
Florida Today

CAPE CANAVERAL — Events this month are spotlighting Kennedy Space Center's role promoting launches for the fast-growing field of mini-satellites known as CubeSats.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the National Reconnaissance Office's classified NROL-55 mission and 13 CubeSats lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Oct. 3, 2015.

Last Thursday in California, KSC managers helped a handful of CubeSats hitch rides on an Atlas V rocket whose main purpose was to loft a secret intelligence mission for the Department of Defense.

On Wednesday, representatives from KSC's Launch Services Program will discuss roughly $17 million in awards they have made to several companies developing small rockets that could offer CubeSats more frequent, inexpensive and timely launches.

Some of those small rockets could launch from KSC, historically home to the world's largest launch vehicles like the Saturn V and space shuttle, and in the future to NASA's 322-foot Space Launch System.

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"I'm hopeful that we'll see launches big and small," said Scott Higginbotham of KSC, who oversaw last week's launch of five NASA-sponsored CubeSats (alongside eight more from the National Reconnaissance Office) under a program called ElaNA, for Educational Launch of Nanosatellites.

Five years ago, Higginbotham was preparing a large International Space Station cargo module to fit in shuttle Discovery's school bus-sized payload bay on that orbiter's final mission.

Andrew Petro, NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program Executive, during a briefing last week about the growing importance of small satellites in exploration and technology development.
Thirteen NASA- and National Reconnaissance Office-sponsored CubeSats launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

But with the shuttle program's retirement in 2011, his focus shifted — shrank, you might say — to the tiniest possible payloads: CubeSats small enough and light enough to hold in your hand.

"I went from 30,000-pound station elements to 3-pound CubeSats in the blink of an eye," he said.

CubeSats measure four inches on a side, or multiples of that box. They were developed by universities, taking advantage of shrinking modern electronics to enable students to design, build and fly spacecraft for thousands of dollars instead of millions.

One example is Merritt Island High School's "StangSat," which could catch a ride next year on SpaceX's heavy-lift Falcon rocket.

Florida Institute of Technology and University of Central Florida students also are involved in CubeSat projects.

Two of the spacecraft launched last week were built by colleges in Alaska and Montana.

"We are helping to breed the next generation, and that's kind of cool," said Higginbotham.

But CubeSats' benefits aren't limited to students. Commercial companies are using them to capture Earth imagery, and they provide NASA, the NRO and others a low-cost way to test new technologies that might end up on big-budget missions.

For example, another member of last week's batch of CubeSats, called the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration, or OCSD, will demonstrate high-speed laser communications from space in a smaller package.

"Technology demonstration missions like OCSD are driving exploration," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

While CubeSats themselves may be relatively inexpensive, launches are not.

KSC's Launch Services Program works with U.S. launch companies to take advantage of any extra capacity their rockets may have, if the primary mission doesn't need it all, to essentially offer a free ride for selected missions.

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But not all customers are willing to take on the risk of adding small satellites to their launch, and the rocket must be heading in the right direction and to the right altitude to fit certain missions.

And demand is growing. Around the world, more than 130 CubeSats were launched to orbit last year, almost as many as had launched in the previous decade. KSC is trying to secure rides for more than 50 NASA-sponsored missions over the next several years.

That's why NASA recently awarded money to three companies — Firefly Space Systems, Rocket Lab USA and Virgin Galactic — that could launch small NASA spacecraft on new rockets by 2018.

KSC has even built a $1 million concrete slab, dubbed launch pad 39C, that could serve as their launching point.

"We're kind of blazing a new trail here," said Higginbotham. "It appears several entities are on the verge of actually having vehicles that should be able to go fly. If they can get the price point down to where it's reasonable, then we, the Department of Defense, commercial entities will all be buyers of these products."

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