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| Vidur Kaushish, a student at the Naval Postgraduate School, works on the NPS CubeSat Launcher. (Courtesy NPS website) |
Students
at the Naval Postgraduate School have developed an auxiliary payload platform
that will permit the launch of as many as 24 cubesats at a time. AMSAT News
Service reports that the NPS CubeSat Launcher is designed to release satellites
one at a time by opening spring-loaded doors at the desired orbital altitude. The
first launch, slated to carry 11 cubesats, is planned for this August. More
information is available at <http://tunyurl.com/CubeSat-NPSCuL>.
Editor's
note: Success for either or both of these launchers (the NPSCuL and Japanese
JEM projects) would open the door for greater availability of small satellite
launches at much lower cost, since the costs would be shared among developers
of the different satellites sharing the launch.
