OVERVIEW

NASA will launch small research satellites, or 

CubeSats, for four universities. This will be the 

third installment of the Educational Launch of 

Nanosatellite (ELaNa) missions. The CubeSats 

are manifested as auxiliary payloads on the 

Delta II launch vehicle for NASA’s NPOESS 

Preparatory Project (NPP) mission, planned for 

liftoff on October 27. NASA’s Launch Services 

Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida 

manages the ELaNa project.

These miniature satellites were chosen from a 

prioritized queue established through a shortlisting process from universities that responded 

to two public announcements to NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative in 2010. Another launch initiative call will close on November 14, 2011.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASAfacts

CubeSat ELaNa III Launch on NPP Mission

Basic CubeSat Facts:

•	Built to standard dimensions (Units or 

“U”) of 10 × 10 × 11 cm—about 4 in

•	Can be 1 U, 2 U, 3 U, or 6 U in size

•	Weigh about 1 kg (3 lb) per U

•	Deployed from standard Poly

Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD)

CubeSat Deployment

For the NPP mission, there will be three Poly 

Picosatellite Orbital Deployers (P-PODs) 

aboard the Delta II rocket that will ferry NPP 

into space. Each P-POD is capable of deploying up to three CubeSats. Five CubeSat projects were selected for this mission, as some 

are larger than the minimum size. Kennedy 

adapted the P-POD, which was designed and 

manufactured by the California Polytechnic 

State University (Cal Poly) in partnership with 

Stanford University, to integrate into the Delta II

launch vehicle. This P-POD design has flown 

previously on Department of Defense and commercial launches and on Orbital Sciences’ 

Taurus XL for NASA. Cal Poly integrates 

the CubeSats with the P-POD and provides 

the entire assembly to the launch vehicle 

integrator.

As the Delta II rocket reaches an altitude of 

about 217 mi (350 km), the NPP spacecraft 

will be deployed. The CubeSats will separate 

from their P-PODs 10 seconds after NPP has 

completed its separation. The launch vehicle will provide indications that the P-POD 

doors have opened and the CubeSats have 

been released. After 45 minutes in orbit, the 

CubeSat transmitters will turn on. University 

ground stations will listen for their beacons, 

determine the nanosatellites’ functionality, 

and announce operational status. CubeSat 

mission durations and orbital lives will vary 

but are anticipated to last at least 90 days.

AubieSat-1

A CubeSat created by Auburn University, 

designated AubieSat-1, is the first of several 

missions with the goal of achieving formationflying CubeSats for collecting space weather 

data. Its mission is to measure fluctuations 

in Earth’s magnetic field in low-Earth orbit 

using magnetometers. This mission will allow 

students at Auburn to get hands-on experience and to provide a knowledge base for 

future missions.

The ELaNa I mission manifested three CubeSats on NASA’s Glory Mission. They failed to 

reach orbit because of a failure in the Taurus 

XL rocket. ELaNa II proposed to manifest two 

CubeSats on the ORS Enabler mission, which 

was postponed. These CubeSats have been 

re-manifested on later launches.

October 2011

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www.nasa.gov NASA Facts

Explorer-1 [Prime] (Unit 2)

This CubeSat was created by Montana State University 

and is designated Explorer-1 [Prime], or E1P, to honor 

the launch and discoveries of the Explorer-1 mission that 

detected the Van Allen radiation belts more than 50 years 

ago. This satellite carries 

the same instrument as 

the E1P CubeSat that 

failed to reach orbit on 

the Glory mission: a 

miniature Geiger tube to 

measure intensity and 

variability of electrons in 

the Van Allen belts. 

ELaNa Launch on NPP PAOs: 

NASA Headquarters—Joshua Buck, jbuck@nasa.gov, 202-358-1100; Michael Curie, michael.curie@nasa.gov, 202-358-1100;

Stephanie Schierholz, stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov, 202-358-1100

RAX

This CubeSat created by 

the University of Michigan 

in conjunction with SRI 

International is designated Radio Aurora and 

Ionosphere Experiment, 

or RAX. Its mission is to 

use a ground-to-space 

bistatic coherent-scatter 

radar system to analyze the distribution of 

naturally occurring ionosphere irregularities. RAX 

will provide insight on 

how those irregularities 

degrade the performance 

of communication and 

navigation satellites. 

For More Information

For additional information about NASA’s CubeSat Launch 

Initiative program, visit http://go.nasa.gov/CubeSat_initiative

For additional information about the CubeSats, visit:

AubieSat-1: http://space.auburn.edu/

DICE: http://www.sdl.usu.edu/programs/dice

Explorer-1 [Prime]:

http://www.ssel.montana.edu/explorer-1_prime/

M-Cubed/COVE: http://umcubed.org/

RAX: http://rax.engin.umich.edu/

DICE

This two-satellite CubeSat payload created by Utah State 

University is designated Dynamic Ionosphere CubeSat 

Experiment, or DICE. DICE will study Storm Enhanced 

Density (SED) bulge and plume features that occur frequently in the U.S. in the late afternoon during magnetic 

disturbances. Each of the two identical satellites is one 

and one-half unit (11⁄2 U) in size and will launch together 

to remove spatial and temporal ambiguities in the observation of the plasma density and electric fields in 

the ionosphere. DICE 

will enable better understanding of ionospheric 

variability during solar 

storms, which has a dramatic effect on radio frequency systems. 

M-Cubed/COVE

This CubeSat created 

by the University of 

Michigan is designated 

the Michigan Multipurpose Mini-satellite, or 

M-Cubed. M-Cubed’s 

mission is to obtain midresolution color imagery 

of Earth’s surface and 

to carry the JPL/Caltech-developed CubeSat On-board 

processing Validation Experiment (COVE). COVE will 

prove an image processing algorithm designed for the 

Multiangle Spectro-Polarimetric Imager (MSPI) instrument utilizing the first in-space application of a new 

radiation-hardened FPGA processor. COVE will advance 

technology required for real-time, high-data-rate instrument processing relevant to future Earth science.

Safety and Mission Assurance

Each CubeSat developer verified that its satellite complied with the P-POD requirements and provided for mission assurance. NASA conducted mission integration and 

safety verifications for the CubeSats to ensure that their 

presence and deployment would not add further risk to the 

primary mission. NASA jointly conducted a mission readiness review with each CubeSat developer.