NASA, 10 Organizations Partner to Send CubeSats to ISS

NASA has tapped 10 organizations involved in small research satellite development to join a mission to the International Space Station.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is one of the institutions selected by the U.S. space agency. The organization has been working on the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment Twiggs, a prototype of a 3U cubeSat designed to contain and launch tethered SlimSat modules into a very low-Earth orbit.

The other organizations selected for the program include Oakwood School in California, California State University in Long Beach, California, and Utah State University, NASA .gov reported.

The U.S. space agency has been using cubesats for a wide range of applications. In May 2023, it selected Rocket Lab to deploy two additional TROPICS cubesats to provide frequent views of tropical cyclones and critical information for storm monitoring and forecasting.

It also tapped SpaceX to deliver two cubesats for the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative, scheduled to launch no earlier than 2025.