CubeSat

Virgin Orbit has revealed plans for the first commercial satellite mission to Mars, where a new breed of tiny probes could help study the Red Planet.

ESA plans to launch the first Earth observation satellite incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) in a few months.

NASA has released images and footage of Hurricane Dorian, as it continues its menacing advance across the Atlantic Ocean.

Scientists are getting creative with propulsion methods for small spacecraft, including carrying water as fuel and converting it to steam. NASA’s OCSD mission has now leaned on this to pull off a first-of-a-kind maneuver between two of its CubeSats in low-Earth orbit.​

​​The way small satellites and scientific instruments find their way into space these days is by hitching a ride on large rockets carrying hefty payloads. But some are looking to change that, including SpaceX with a new launch program specifically for firing these small payloads into space.

The Planetary Society announced today that after unfurling its solar sail last week, the tiny spacecraft has successfully leveraged photons from the Sun to shift its trajectory in Earth orbit, a landmark moment in the history of space exploration. ​​

​​After launching into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket last month, The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 satellite has now entered the most critical phase of its mission, successfully unfurling its solar sail and starting to surf through space on the power of the Sun.

Mission plans for SULIS, a solar project designed to answer fundamental questions about the physics of solar storms, have been revealed. Using a cluster of small, formation-flying satellites known as CubeSats, SULIS will directly measuring the magnetic field of the Sun's corona for the first time.

Future spacecraft could be getting around under the power of sails. But of course, with no wind in space, these sails are catching another method of propulsion – photons from starlight. The tech is soon due to be demonstrated in action onboard LightSail 2, a small satellite due to launch next week.

If you thought SpaceX launching 60 Starlink satellites at once was impressive, Cornell University managed 105 small satellites. The ChipSats, called Sprites, forming a swarm of cracker-sized nanosatellites were deployed from the Kicksat-2 CubeSat on March 18, 2019 at an altitude of 300 km (186 mi).

Remember the garbage-collecting Oscar the Grouch, from Sesame Street? Well, an orbital-debris-gathering spacecraft now bears his name. Known as OSCaR ("Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal"), the semi-autonomous craft is currently being developed at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Lockheed Martin is rolling out a new class of CubeSat that can be reprogrammed in orbit like a smartphone to take on new missions. The new SmartSat technology is being integrated into over 10 satellite programs to start with and the prototypes will be launched this year.