NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) provides opportunities for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned for upcoming launches. These CubeSats are flown as auxiliary payloads on previously planned missions.
To participate in the CSLI program, CubeSat investigations should address research in science, exploration, technology, or education consistent with NASA’s Strategic Plan and the Education Strategic Coordination Framework.
CSLI provides educational opportunities that attract and retain students, teachers, and faculty in STEM disciplines. This strengthens the nation’s future workforce and promotes and innovative partnerships among NASA, U.S. industry, and other sectors for the benefit of agency programs and projects.
Project ELaNa: Launching Education into Space
Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) is an exciting initiative created by NASA to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. Managed by the Launch Services Program (LSP) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ELaNa reaches students by introducing educational spaceflight in high schools and colleges across the United States.
Students are heavily involved in all aspects of the mission from developing, assembling, and testing payloads to working with NASA and the launch vehicle integration teams. The ELaNa nanosatellites, or CubeSats, are held to rigorous standards similar to that of the primary spacecraft.
CubeSats are designed in standard units of 10x10x10 cm, about 4 inches cubed. CubeSats can be built in a single unit, or combined in units of two, three or six. A single unit must weigh less than 1.33 kg, or 3 pounds. On launch day, the tiny satellites are deployed one after another from a Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD), a standard CubeSat carrier system designed and built by Cal Poly students.
NASA helping students and professionals launch their own mini satellites known as CubeSats. The CubeSat Launch Initiative provides new opportunities for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by helping people design, launch and collect data.