Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Multi-Cubesat Launcher Built by Naval Postgraduate School



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.