Dulles, Virginia July 16, 2018 –Yesterday evening, NanoRacks successfully deployed six CubeSats from the Company’s CubeSat deployer mounted on the outside of the Cygnus spacecraft. This brings the overall count to 223 small satellites deployed into low-Earth orbit.
The ninth contracted resupply mission from Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems) launched on May 21, 2018, carrying NanoRacks’ fifth mission providing opportunities for CubeSat deployment from Cygnus after the vehicle departs from the International Space Station. Prior to launch, the NanoRacks External Cygnus Deployer is installed on the exterior of the Cygnus service module with the capability to deploy satellites after the spacecraft completes its primary space station commercial resupply mission.
The Cygnus spacecraft was raised to over 480 kilometers after departing the International Space Station before the CubeSats were released.
NanoRacks deployed the following satellites:
- Lemurs (4 Satellites) – Spire Global, Inc.
- AeroCube 12A – Aerospace Corporation
- AeroCube 12B – Aerospace Corporation
“This mission truly builds on NanoRacks vision of repurposing in-space hardware,” says NanoRacks Chief Technology Officer, Mike Lewis. “This Cygnus spacecraft carried out a primary mission to the Space Station, re-boosted the Station, and then deployed numerous small satellites from a diverse group of customers. We’re proud to remain a key player in these mission-extending operations while simultaneously providing reliable opportunities for the satellite community.
Last week, NanoRacks completed the Company’s 14th CubeSat deployment mission from the International Space Station.
NanoRacks would like to thank Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and the NASA International Space Station Program Office for their continued support of NanoRacks satellite deployment programs.
For additional updates, follow @NanoRacks on Twitter.
About NanoRacks
NanoRacks is the world’s first commercial space station company with an existing customer base. The company offers low-cost, high-quality solutions to the most pressing needs for satellite deployment, basic and educational research and both at home and in 30 nations worldwide for those new to the industry and aerospace veterans. Since 2009, Texas-based NanoRacks has truly created new markets and ushered in a new era of in space-services.
In July 2015, NanoRacks signed a teaming agreement with Blue Origin to offer integration services on their New Shepard space vehicle. NanoRacks, along with partners at ULA and Space Systems Loral was also selected by NASA to participate in the NextSTEP Phase II program to develop commercial habitation systems in low-Earth orbit and beyond.
As of July 2018, over 700 payloads have been launched to the International Space Station via NanoRacks services, and our customer base includes the European Space Agency (ESA) the German Space Agency (DLR,) the American space agency (NASA,) US Government Agencies, Spire, Millennium Space Systems, Space Florida, NCESSE, Virgin Galactic, pharmaceutical companies, and organizations in Vietnam, UK, Romania and Israel.