CubeSat

A small satellite developed by MIT engineers has set a new record for data transmission between a satellite and Earth. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system used a laser to beam huge amounts of data at up to 100 gigabits per second.

After three years circling the Earth, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission has come to an end following a fiery reentry. The satellite was an important tech demo for solar sailing, which could eventually propel spacecraft to other stars.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment lunar mission looks like it's back on track after a day of suspense as NASA and contractor Advanced Space re-establish radio contact with the CubeSat probe.

Lockheed Martin is looking to give diminutive CubeSats a pretty big job – regularly updating existing satellite constellations in orbit. LINUSS is a new CubeSat family designed to demonstrate technologies to perform such tasks.

On June 26, ESA's OPS-SAT space lab went into Earth orbit with a computer running the European Ground System – Common Core (EGS-CC) "space brain" software that will be common to all European space missions from 2025.

As hypersonic missiles rapidly move toward becoming practical weapons, the problem of how to counter them is also on the agenda. The US Department of Defense developing a CubeSats-based system to track these missiles in all phases of their flight.

Virgin Orbit has followed on from its first trip to space back in January, with a mission that now marks the beginning of its commercial satellite launch service after successfully carrying seven CubeSats into orbit on Wednesday.

A first-of-a-kind spacecraft is set to make history later this year, but will do so using materials you could find at your local hardware store. The world's first wooden satellite is set to enter orbit as a box made largely of birch plywood.

It was the second time's a charm as Virgin Orbit's airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA payloads into orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months, sending 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit under the Launch Services Program.

A student-built CubeSat will investigate whether satellites can be maintained in low Earth orbit without thrusters or propellant. The Miniature Tether Electrodynamics Experiment-1will test using the Earth's magnetic field to generate thrust.

Howe Industries has submitted the design for a solar-powered steam rocket engine for propelling CubeSats to the National Science Foundation. With only two moving parts, ThermaSat uses a thermal condenser to flash boil water into superheated steam.

Virgin Orbit is preparing its pilots, Cosmic Girl mothership and LauncherOne rocket for a second attempt at orbital flight, today announcing that its Launch Demo 2 mission will take place a week before Christmas.