CubeSats

thumb|nCube (satellite)|Ncube-2, a Norwegian CubeSat ( cube) A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats are deployed into orbit from the International Space Station, or launched as secondary payloads on a launch vehicle. , more than 2,300 CubeSats have been launched.

ESTCube-1 is the first Estonian satellite and first satellite in the world to attempt to use an electric solar wind sail (E-sail). It was launched on 7 May, 2013, aboard Vega VV02 carrier rocket and successfully deployed into the orbit. The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10×10×11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.

CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that is testing and verifying the calculated orbital stability planned for the now canceled Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12-unit CubeSat that is also testing a navigation system that is measuring its position relative to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) without relying on ground stations. It was launched on 28 June 2022, arrived in lunar orbit on 14 November 2022, and was scheduled to orbit for six months. On 18 May 2023, it completed its primary mis

LightSail is a project to demonstrate controlled solar sailing within low Earth orbit using a CubeSat. The project was developed by The Planetary Society, a global non-profit organization devoted to space exploration. It consists of two spacecraft — LightSail 1 and LightSail 2. LightSail 1 was an engineering demonstration mission designed to test its new sail deployment method in space, it did not perform solar sailing. LightSail 2 was a fully functional spacecraft intended to demonstrate true solar sailing and incorporated the lessons learned from LightSail 1. LightSail is a follow-on project

Mars flyby mission

Ecuadorian satellite

NASA small satellite which was planned to orbit the Moon

MaSat-1 (from the words Magyar and Satellite, the first meaning "Hungarian" in Hungarian, maszat, pronounced IPA [ˈmɒsɒt], meaning "smudge") is the first indigenous Hungarian satellite, developed and built by students at the Technical University of Budapest. The 1U CubeSat-type satellite was launched into low Earth orbit on 13 February 2012. The satellite provided telemetric data as well as VGA resolution color images at the 70 cm amateur radio wavelength (437.345 MHz frequency) received at the tracking center at Budapest. The center was tested on 31 March 2009 with the help of Charl

NanoSail-D2 was a small satellite built by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space. It was a three-unit CubeSat, measuring with a mass of . Its solar sail had an area of , and was deployed in around five seconds.

proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using the dynamic pressure of the solar wind as a source of thrust

300px|thumb|right|Animation of OMOTENASHI around Earth OMOTENASHI (Outstanding MOon exploration TEchnologies demonstrated by NAno Semi-Hard Impactor) was a small spacecraft and semi-hard lander of the 6U CubeSat format intended to demonstrate low-cost technology to land and explore the lunar surface. The CubeSat was to take measurements of the radiation environment near the Moon as well as on the lunar surface. Omotenashi is a Japanese word for "welcome" or "Hospitality".

planned solar sail spacecraft

Vietnamese satellite

Xatcobeo, originally known as Dieste, is a project to build the first Galician artificial satellite developed by Agrupación Estratéxica Aeroespacial (currently Alén Space) of the University of Vigo and leadered by Fernando Aguado in collaboration with the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) and with the support of the Galician government-owned corporation Retegal. The project was presented to the European Space Agency for its launch in the inaugural flight of the Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Centre, in Kourou (French Guiana). Its life will be between 6 and 12 months, and its

EQUULEUS (EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft) was a nanosatellite of the 6U CubeSat format that measured the distribution of plasma that surrounds the Earth (plasmasphere) to help scientists understand the radiation environment in that region. It also demonstrated low-thrust trajectory control techniques, such as multiple lunar flybys, within the Earth-Moon region using water steam as propellant. The spacecraft was designed and developed jointly by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the University of Tokyo.

LunIR (Lunar InfraRed Imaging, formerly known as SkyFire) is a nanosatellite spacecraft launched to the Moon collecting surface spectroscopy and thermography. It was launched as a secondary payload on the Artemis 1 mission on 16 November 2022.

SwissCube-1 is a Swiss satellite operated by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The spacecraft is a single unit CubeSat, which was designed to conduct research into nightglow within the Earth's atmosphere, and to develop technology for future spacecraft. It has also been used for amateur radio. It was the first Swiss satellite to be launched.

PW-Sat is a series of Polish CubeSats designed and built by students at the Warsaw University of Technology in conjunction with the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering of Warsaw University of Technology, the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences, and the European Space Agency. As of January 1, 2024, there have been 2 PW-Sats with a third in development. The first PW-Sat was the first Polish artificial satellite which was launched 13 February 2012 from ELA-1 at Guiana Space Centre aboard Italian-built Vega launch vehicle during its maiden voyage. After their graduation,

thumb|upright=1.0|Artist's impression of Aalto-1 releasing its electrostatic motor|electrostatic plasma brake tether.

CubeSat testing technologies for the detection of exoplanets

US Moon-orbiting ice-finding satellite

NanoSail-D was a small satellite which was to have been used by NASA's Ames Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space. It was a three-unit CubeSat measuring , with a mass of . The satellite was lost shortly after launch due to a problem with the launch vehicle carrying it; however, a replacement, NanoSail-D2, was launched in 2010 to complete its mission.

Colombian CubeSat

Delfi-C3 is a CubeSat satellite constructed by students at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. It is a 3-unit CubeSat, and was launched at 03:53:42 on 28 April 2008, as part of the NLS-4 mission, aboard a PSLV rocket, from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. The launch was contracted by ISRO, through Antrix Corporation and UTIAS.

nanosatellite

series of two Norwegian pico-satellites

BioSentinel is a low-cost CubeSat spacecraft on an astrobiology mission that uses budding yeast to detect, measure, and compare the impact of deep space radiation on DNA repair over long time beyond low Earth orbit.

Goliat is the first artificial satellite developed in Romania.

GeneSat-1 is a NASA fully automated, CubeSat spaceflight system that provides life support for bacteria E. Coli K-12. The system was launched into orbit on 16 December 2006, from Wallops Flight Facility. GeneSat-1 began to transmit data on its first pass over the mission's California ground station.

Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube, ) is a six-unit CubeSat of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). LICIACube is a part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and carries out observational analysis of the Didymos asteroid binary system after DART's impact on Dimorphos. It communicates directly with Earth, sending back images of the ejecta and plume of DART's impact as well as having done asteroidal study during its flyby of the Didymos system from a distance of , 165 seconds after DART's impact. LICIACube is the first purely Italian autonomous spacecraft in de

ArgoMoon is a CubeSat that was launched into a heliocentric orbit on Artemis 1, the maiden flight of the Space Launch System, on 16 November 2022 at 06:47:44 UTC. The objective of the ArgoMoon spacecraft is to take detailed images of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage following Orion separation, an operation that will demonstrate the ability of a cubesat to conduct precise proximity maneuvers in deep space. ASI has not confirmed nor denied whether this took place, but several images of the Earth and the Moon were taken.

nanosatellite spacecraft

STRaND-1 (Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator 1) is a failed 3U CubeSat developed by Surrey University's Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). The nanosatellite was launched into orbit on board a PSLV Rocket from India on February 25, 2013, Smartphones have flown in space before inside the International Space Station, and the computer from a PDA launched inside two Japanese CubeSats in 2006 and 2008.

Hayasat-1 (in Armenian: Հայասաթ-1) is an Armenian nano-satellite developed by Bazoomq Space Research Laboratory and CSIE (Center for Scientific Innovation and Education) in the CubeSat format. It is the second Armenian satellite to be launched into orbit, but the first one designed and created entirely by Armenians.

LignoSat is a small Japanese wooden satellite. It is credited as the world's first satellite to be made of wood.

e-st@r (Educational Satellite @ Politecnico di Torino) was a miniaturised satellite built by the Politecnico di Torino. It was a 1U CubeSat design with a 10 cm side and a mass not exceeding 1.33 kg.

Mongolian CubeSat

thumb|PhoneSat 1.0 during high-altitude balloon test. The antenna made from Tape measure|yellow tape measure is deployed. PhoneSat is an ongoing NASA project of building nanosatellites using unmodified consumer-grade off-the-shelf smartphones and Arduino platform and launching them into Low Earth Orbit. This project is part of NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program and was started in 2009 at NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, California).

TigriSat is a CubeSat built in 2014 by a team of Iraqi students at the La Sapienza University of Rome as one of the four satellites deployed within UniSat-6. It uses an RGB camera to detect dust storms over Iraq, and transmits the data to ground stations in Baghdad and Rome. It is considered Iraq's first satellite. It was launched from Orenburg on June 19, 2014 on a Dnepr launch vehicle.

thumb|ESTCube-2 technical drawing. Illustration by Rute Marta Jansone, Anna Maskava|417x417px ESTCube-2 was a three-unit (1 U standard dimension 100x100x113.5 mm) CubeSat built by the Estonian Student Satellite Foundation. ESTCube-2 launched from Kourou, French Guiana, with the European Space Agency's Vega launch vehicle on 9 October 2023 at 4:36 a.m. EEST. The satellite likely failed to deploy and was likely destroyed when the upper stage of the launch vehicle reentered the atmosphere.

thumb|Zac Manchester and KickSat thumb|KickSat Sprite prototype

PicoDragon is a small satellite that followed the 1U type of CubeSat program built by the Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC) which belongs to VAST and operated in space for 3 months.

Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite and the first satellite built and designed by Filipinos. It was followed by Diwata-2, launched in 2018.

Ecuadorian satellite

AAUSAT-II (Aalborg University CubeSat no 2) is the second student-built CubeSat built and operated by students from Aalborg University in Denmark. It was launched 28 April 2008 05:53:51 UTC from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launch vehicle. AAUSAT-II carries a gamma radiation sensor.

Urdaneta-Armsat is a series of Spanish-Armenian nanosatellites developed by the Basque company Satlantis Microsats in collaboration with the Armenian national company Geocosmos, in the CubeSat (16U) format.

Bangladeshi CubeSat

TurkSat-3USat is a Turkish communications nanosatellite developed by the Space Systems Design and Test Laboratory and Radio Frequency Electronics Laboratory of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in collaboration with the Türksat company along with Turkish Amateur Satellite Technology Organization (TAMSAT). It was launched on 26 April 2013.

GhanaSat-1 was the first Ghanaian nanosatellite to be launched into space. It was designed and built in two years in conjunction with the Kyushu Institute of Technology Birds-1 program, which has the goal of helping countries build their first satellite.

Satellogic Inc. is an American company specializing in Earth-observation satellites, founded in 2010 by Emiliano Kargieman and Gerardo Richarte.

nanosatellite, first to be hand-deployed

UWE-1 (Universität Würzburg's Experimentalsatellit-1) was one of three CubeSats built by students of the University of Würzburg, launched on 27 October 2005 as part of the European Space Agency's SSETI Express mission from Plesetsk in Russia, orbiting Earth in a circular orbit. The cube-shaped satellite weighs about 1 kg and has an edge length of 10 cm, which corresponds to the CubeSat standard.

UWE-2 ('''University Würzburg's Experimental satellite 2''') was a follow-on picosatellite technology demonstration project within the CubeSat family standard, developed and built by students of the University of Würzburg, Germany. The overall objective is to demonstrate the capabilities of attitude determination and control in picosatellites.

thumb|Birds project logo

Niwaka or FITSAT-1 is a 1U CubeSat satellite deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on 4 October 2012. The Niwaka satellite includes high power LEDs which are driven by 200 watts pulses, allowing Morse code style communication from the sky to the ground. FITSAT-1 (Niwaka) communicates with ground by means of 5.8 GHz high-speed (115200 bit/s) transmitter. It also has a 437 MHz (amateur band) beacon and transmitter with data rate 1200 bit/s for telemetry downlink.

PharmaSat was a nanosatellite developed by NASA Ames Research Center which measured the influence of microgravity upon yeast resistance to an antifungal agent. As a follow on to the GeneSat-1 mission, the Ames Small Spacecraft Division conducted the PharmaSat mission in collaboration with industry and local universities.

ROBUSTA (Radiation on Bipolar for University Satellite Test Application) is a nano-satellite scientific experiment developed by the University of Montpellier students as part of a Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) call for student projects in the field of orbital systems.

Japanese satellite

BeeSat-1 or Berlin Experimental and Educational Satellite 1, is a German satellite operated by Technische Universität Berlin. The spacecraft is a single unit CubeSat, which was designed to test systems intended for use on future spacecraft, including a new design of reaction wheel. It has also been used for amateur radio, and is equipped with a small camera.

AAUSat-3 (Aalborg University CubeSat-3), is the third CubeSat built and operated by students from the Aalborg University in Denmark. It was launched on 25 February 2013 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launch vehicle (PSLV-C20). AAUSat-3 carries two Automatic Identification System (AIS-1 and AIS-2) receivers as the main payload.