Six New CubeSats Deployed [Info+Video]

Six new CubeSats deployed successfully.

Six New CubeSats Deployed

On January 16th, 2017, six CubeSats were deployed into orbit form the ISS (International Space Station) with the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo”.

The satellites deployed are the following:

a. Three 1U CubeSats: ITF-2 (University of Tsukuba), WASEDA-SAT3 (Waseda University), FREEDOM (Nakashimata Engineering Works Ltd/Tohoku University)

b. One 3U CubeSat: EGG (University of Tokyo)

c. One 2U CubeSat: AOBA-VELOX3 (co-developed by Kyushu Institute of Technology and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore)

d. One 3U CubeSat: TuPOD (containing two microsatellites called TubeSats [Tancredo1 and OSNSAT], co-developed by JAMSS/GAUSS/Tancred elementary school and INPE Brazil/OSN US)

The ITF-2, WASEDA-SAT3, AOBA-VELOX3, TuPOD and Tancredo1 have amateur radio downlinks. More info on the designated frequencies of the downlinks can be found on IARU’s Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination page here.

These CubeSats were launched on December 9th, 2016 with the transfer vehicle KOUNOTORI6 and arrived at the ISS on December 14th.

Here is the ~3h-long YouTube video that was live-streaming the satellite deployment:

CubeSat Specifications

1U, 2U, 3U etc. are CubeSat specification sizes for satellites. A size of 1U means that the basic size of the satellite is 10cm³ (cubic centimeters). More info on Cubesat here.

Source: JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)