QB50-ISS CubeSats ready to be launched
By Davide Masutti
Brussels, Belgium – Two weeks ago the launch preparation activities managed by VKI/ISIS/NanoRacks were successfully concluded at Innovative Solutions In Space B.V. facilities. Twenty-eight (28) CubeSats of the QB50 constellation were integrated into eleven (11) NanoRacks 6U deployers. After a formal handover of the hardware to NanoRacks LLC, the CubeSats and the deployers were shipped to NanoRacks’s facilities in Houston (US). Today the hardware has been cleared out at the US customs and then it will be transported to the cleanroom of NanoRacks. In a window of time between Dec 19th 2016 to Jan 9th 2017 all deployers will be finally delivered to Lockheed Martin which is responsible for the Cargo Mission Contract (CMC).
From there on, Lockheed Martin will be in charge of loading the deployers into the Cygnus CRS OA-7 Cargo for a launch atop an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 on March 16th 2017 (date/time to be confirmed).
Additional CubeSats for the ISS
Additional three (3) CubeSats are making their way to Houston following different routes from Russia, India and California. These CubeSats will be then integrated into a single deployer directly by NanoRacks in their facilities.
When the CubeSats will be deployed into space?
The configuration of the deployment from the ISS has been defined during the integration campaign. The CubeSats will be deployed from the ISS into two consecutive airlock cycles separated by 60 days (exact dates to be confirmed by NASA according to the ISS crew schedule). The configuration of the deployment sequence with the correspondent sensor unit is given in the table below.
|
CubeSat ID |
Size |
Deployer |
Airlock 1 |
Airlock 2 |
|
AU01 |
2U |
D7 |
INMS |
|
|
AU02 |
2U |
D1 |
|
INMS |
|
AU03 |
2U |
D9 |
mNLP |
|
|
AZ01 |
2U |
D10 |
FIPEX |
|
|
AZ02 |
2U |
D6 |
|
FIPEX |
|
CA03 |
3U |
D12 |
|
mNLP |
|
CN02 (BE02) |
2U |
D6 |
|
INMS |
|
CN03 (BE03) |
2U |
D1 |
|
FIPEX |
|
CN04 (BE04) |
2U |
D2 |
INMS |
|
|
DE02 |
2U |
D3 |
FIPEX |
|
|
ES01 |
2U |
D7 |
INMS |
|
|
FI01 |
2U |
D7 |
mNLP |
|
|
FR01 |
2U |
D4 |
FIPEX |
|
|
FR05 |
2U |
D5 |
FIPEX |
|
|
GR01 |
2U |
D6 |
|
mNLP |
|
GR02 |
2U |
D5 |
mNLP |
|
|
IL01 |
2U |
D5 |
mNLP |
|
|
IN01 |
2U |
D16 |
FIPEX |
|
|
KR01 |
2U |
D10 |
INMS |
|
|
KR02 |
2U |
D9 |
FIPEX |
|
|
KR03 |
2U |
D11 |
|
FIPEX |
|
RU01 |
2U |
D16 |
FIPEX |
|
|
SE01 |
2U |
D4 |
FIPEX |
|
|
TR01 |
2U |
D2 |
mNLP |
|
|
TR02 |
2U |
D3 |
mNLP |
|
|
TW01 |
2U |
D4 |
INMS |
|
|
UA01 |
2U |
D9 |
FIPEX |
|
|
US01 |
2U |
D1 |
|
INMS |
|
US02 |
2U |
D2 |
FIPEX |
|
|
US03 |
2U |
D16 |
INMS |
|
|
US04 |
2U |
D3 |
FIPEX |
|
|
no. INMS |
|
6 |
3 |
|
|
no. FIPEX |
|
11 |
3 |
|
|
no. mNLP |
|
6 |
2 |
|
|
Total |
|
23 |
8 |
Contact
To learn more about the launch campaign and the next steps, please contact
Dr. Davide Masutti, QB50 Project Manager
Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
Chaussée de Waterloo, 72
B-1640 Rhode-Saint-Genése, Belgium
Office: +32-2-359-9658
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