CubeSat

RadFxSat-2 flight badge Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, or AMSAT, volunteers have established communications with RadFxSat-2, a small CubeSat that had been silent since it deployed in a Virgin Orbit launch Jan. 17, 2021. That day, the California-based company successfully deployed 10 CubeSats selected by NASA as part of the agency’s… Read More

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched Monday, Dec. 3, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and delivered 64 small satellites into sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. NASASpaceFlight.com   The record-setting SpaceX rocket launch yesterday carried a Vanderbilt space radiation experiment aboard CubeSat Fox-1Cliff. Actually, it’s a spare. The original payload is aboard… Read More

Building a program of reliable CubeSats; doing real science at a fraction of the cost A tiny space hitchhiker named AO-85 is talking and thousands of ham radio operators worldwide and a handful of Vanderbilt University engineering researchers with the special interest of proud parents… Read More

Instead of looking at space atmosphere as a toxic vacuum, look at it as an asset, said Les Johnson, who handed a silver 4-inch square of solar sail material as light as small bird’s feather to an audience member. As the piece of sail traveled through a standing-room-only crowd in… Read More

NASA has selected a miniature satellite designed by a team led by electrical engineering professor Robert Reed to fly as an auxiliary payload aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The Vanderbilt project – RadFxSat (radiation effects satellite project) – is a partnership between the university’s Institute… Read More

Smaller, lighter electronic components are more vulnerable to pesky cosmic ray particles Vanderbilt researchers are launching a miniature satellite into space in a quest to help future space missions better combat the harsh conditions of space, particularly radiation that can cause glitches or breakdowns in electronic components. Electrical engineering senior… Read More