Via the ARRL: Interactive LightCube Satellite Set to Launch in Late 2022

NASA has selected LightCube along with 13 other small research satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets launching between 2022 and 2025. The launch opportunity is provided through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). Being designed, built, and tested by an interdisciplinary team of students, advisors, and engineers across multiple organizations, LightCube is a microsatellite educational mission that aims to produce a light visible to the naked eye on Earth. The spacecraft’s two xenon flashtubes will be triggered via amateur radio.

When the light beacon is activated, the 1U CubeSat will be visible momentarily — each flash will last just 8 microseconds — from the ground, with a brightness similar to the International Space Station. Following ISS deployment, LightCube will orbit Earth for approximately 2 years before safely deorbiting.

The LightCube mission is a collaborative project between Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, the ASU Fulton Schools of Engineering, Vega Space Systems, and CETYS Universidad. ASU designed and built the satellite.

Read more – via American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources http://www.arrl.org/news/view/interactive-lightcube-satellite-set-to-launch-in-late-2022