A quartet of small satellites flew high above California's Mojave Desert on June 15 on a
demonstration mission to study the launch environment all the way from liftoff to landing.
The four-inch-cube spacecraft, better known as CubeSats, are being developed to help simplify
and lower the cost of small-satellite missions that could fly on smaller, dedicated rockets.
All four CubeSats were outfitted with special instrumentation to monitor flight
characteristics aboard the Prospector 18 rocket, built by Garvey Spacecraft Corporation.
One of the satellites, CP-9, belongs to California Polytechnic
State University at San Luis Obispo.
It flew alongside StangSat, created by students at Florida's Merritt Island High School.
Garrett Skrobot/High Altitude Demonstration Mission Project Manager: NASA We're now bringing together students,
experiments from other centers, onto a launch vehicle.
So it's very exciting to see these young people move into industry,
build a rocket, and now flying, students who
have built satellites, and merge these two together.
Both CP-9 and StangSat were designed to work together,
recording the launch environment and communicating with each other through onboard Wi-Fi.
They're slated to fly aboard a Falcon 9 rocket during
SpaceX's fifth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
Joshua Zirkle/Stangsat Program Manager Merritt Island High School: We are having our first test
for the StangSat to help show that everything we've done up to this point has been correct,
and that our ideas are sound, and our techniques are sound,
and that what we are planning to do is in fact going to work.
Another satellite, called PhoneSat, was built by NASA's Ames Research Center.
It relies on smartphone features like power, memory,
onboard camera, and small size as a platform for low-cost spacecraft design.
And the Rocket University program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center contributed the
RUBICS-1 satellite, short for Rocket University Broad Initiatives CubeSat.
RUBICS was outfitted with a suite of instruments to monitor the performance of a new,
lightweight deployer built by Tyvak.
CalPoly also serves as a liaison between the payload providers and
NASA's Launch Services Program, and oversees the satellites' integration with the rocket.
In the final days before liftoff, the Prospector rocket arrived at
the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site in the Mojave Desert.
The CubeSat carriers were attached to the bulkhead in the top of the rocket.
Finally, the day before liftoff, the vehicle was raised into a vertical position -- poised for flight.
Launch day dawned bright and early and final preparations began.
At 10:52 a.m. Pacific Time, the rocket's single, liquid-fueled engine ignited,
and the mission was off to a roaring start, reaching a peak altitude of about 9,000 feet.
The rocket's parachute deployed prematurely and the vehicle continued on its trajectory,
coasting and tumbling to a hard landing on its side.
But despite the rough ride, all four CubeSats were recovered.
PhoneSat and RUBICS received data in flight, but sustained structural damage.
CP-9 and StangSat fared better, and their teams are working
to recover as much information as possible.
Brian Robusto/Merritt Island High School: Right now they're taking apart our
satellite to see and analyze what happened.
We're taking very small steps and documenting everything, also picturing,
taking pictures of everything to make sure that we
can recreate the scenarios and we can always look back to it.
A flight data recorder aboard the Prospector rocket also may hold important clues.
Tiffany Davis/Stanford University: I was able to recover my data-logger payload.
Little broken, but I was able to get the data card off of it,
and so we do have data, which is a success.
Rather than a setback, the flight is considered a success --
and a valuable learning opportunity,
giving teams the chance to test their designs in an unexpected environment.
John Garvey/Garvey Spacecraft Corp.: On the plus side, talking to the principal investigators,
the payload folks, most of them got data -- interesting data,
probably more than if we'd had a nominal flight.
So they're all busy looking away, trying to see what they can do -- which,
as a learning experience, is great.
More flights are planned as NASA and its partners continue the quest for a faster,
low-cost alternative -- by delivering CubeSats into space
as the primary payloads aboard smaller launch vehicles.