Educational Launch of Nanosatellites

Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) is an initiative created by NASA to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.[1] The program is managed by the Launch Services Program (LSP) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Overview

The ELaNa initiative has made partnerships with universities in the US to design and launch small research satellites called CubeSats because of their cube shape. These low-cost CubeSat missions provide NASA with valuable opportunities to test emerging technologies that may be useful in future space missions, while university students get to be involved in all phases of the mission, from instrument and satellite design, to launch and monitoring.

Engineers processing a CubeSat on Rocket Lab's facility

A CubeSat has a cubic shape measuring 10×10×10 cm (1 unit or 1U), and can be fabricated of multiple cubic units such as 2U, 3U and 6U, and weighing 1.33 kg per Unit. Because of the high cost incurred by launching them to orbit, ELaNa's satellites are launched as secondary payload on other missions that have mass and space to spare. Since the launch waiting list has grown considerably, another initiative was launched in 2015 in partnership with the private industry to develop launch vehicles dedicated to CubeSats exclusively. A new company is called Rocket Lab and their launch vehicle is the Electron rocket.[2] This agreement with NASA, enables the company to use NASA resources such as personnel, facilities and equipment for commercial launch efforts.[2][3] In 2015, NASA contracted two other companies for this purpose: Firefly Space Systems and Virgin Galactic.[4] Nevertheless, NASA CubeSats will continue to hitch rides as secondary payloads in larger rockets whenever possible.

As of August 2017, NASA's ELaNa initiative has selected 151 CubeSat missions, 49 of which have been launched into space.[5]

Missions

ELaNa mission numbers are based on the order they are manifested; due to the nature of launching, the actual launch order differs from the mission numbers.

Launched missions

Launch date (GMT) Fact sheet CubeSats deployed Main mission and
CubeSats included		 Launch vehicle Launch site
4 March 2011 ELaNa I 3* (Glory) Hermes, Explorer-1 Prime, KySat-1[6]
*launch failure		 Taurus XL Vandenberg LC-576
28 October 2011 ELaNa III 5 (NPOESS Preparatory Project) RAX-2, M-Cubed, Explorer-1 Prime, DICE, AubieSat-1 Delta II 7920-10 Vandenberg SLC-2 West
13 September 2012 ELaNa VI 4 (NROL-36)
CXBN, CP5, CINEMA, CSSWE.[7]		 Atlas V 401 Vandenberg SLC-3 East
20 November 2013 ELaNa IV, All ORS-3 payloads[8] 12 (ORS-3[9]) H-2, KySat-2, ChargerSat-1, SwampSat, Trailblazer, TJ3Sat, DragonSat-1, CAPE-2, PhoneSat 2.4, COPPER, DragonSat-1, Vermont Lunar.[10] Minotaur I MARS pad 0B, Wallops
6 December 2013 ELaNa II[11] 4 (NROL-39)
CUNYSAT-1, IPEX, M-Cubed-2, FIREBIRD-1A/1B		 Atlas V 501 Vandenberg SLC-3 East
22 February 2014 ELaNa V[12] 5 (SpaceX CRS-3)
ALL-STAR, PhoneSat 2.5, KickSat, SporeSat, TSAT.[13]		 Falcon 9 / Dragon CCAFS SLC-40
28 October 2014 ELaNa-VIII 1* Cygnus CRS Orb-3
CHARM
*launch failure		 Antares 130 / Cygnus MARS pad 0A, Wallops
31 January 2015 ELaNa X[14] 3 (Soil Moisture Active Passive)
GRIFEX, EXOCUBE, FIREBIRD-2 A/B[15]		 Delta II 7320 Vandenberg SLC-2 West
20 May 2015 ELaNa XI 1 (Boeing X-37#OTV-4)
LightSail-A		 Atlas V 501 CCAFS SLC-41
8 October 2015 ELaNa XII [16] 4 (NROL-55)
Fox-1, BisonSat, ARC, LMRST-Sat[17]		 Atlas V 401 Vandenberg SLC-3 East
4 November 2015 ELaNa VII[18] 2* (ORS-4[19])
Argus, PrintSat[20]
*launch failure[21]		 Super Strypi Pacific Missile Range Facility
6 December 2015 ELaNa IX[22] 3 (Cygnus CRS Orb-4)
MinXSS, STMSat-1, CADRE		 Atlas V 401 / Cygnus CCAFS SLC-41
18 April 2017 ELaNa XVII 3 (Cygnus CRS OA-7)
CXBN-2, IceCube, CSUNSat-1 [23]		 Atlas V 401 / Cygnus CCAFS SLC-41
14 August 2017 ELaNa 22 3 (SpaceX CRS-12)
ASTERIA, Dellingr, OSIRIS-3U[24][25]		 Falcon 9 / Dragon CCAFS SLC-40
12 November 2017 ELaNa XIII 2 (Cygnus CRS OA-8E)
ISARA, EcAMSat[25]		 Antares 230 MARS pad 0A, Wallops
18 November 2017 ELaNa XIV 4 (JPSS-1)
MiRaTA, MakerSat-0, RadFxSat, EagleSat-1		 Delta II 7920 Vandenberg SLC-2 West
21 May 2018 ELaNa 23 9 (Cygnus CRS OA-9E)
HaloSat, TEMPEST-D1, EQUiSat, MemSat, CANOP, RadSat, RainCube, SORTIE, CubeRTT		 Antares 230 / Cygnus MARS pad 0A, Wallops
15 September 2018[26] ELaNa XVIII 5 (ICESat-2)
DAVE, ELFIN*, ELFIN, SurfSat		 Delta II 7420 Vandenberg SLC-2

Future missions

List of future missions:[27]

Launch date (GMT) Fact sheet No. of CubeSats Main mission and
CubeSats included		 Launch vehicle Launch site
August 2018 ELaNa XIX 10
  • ALBUS
  • CeREs
  • CHOMPTT
  • CubeSail
  • DaVinci
  • ISX
  • NMTSat
  • RSat-P
  • Shields-1
  • STF-1
 Electron Rocket Lab LC-1
October 2018[26] ELaNa 24 2 (SSO-A mission managed by Spaceflight Industries)
IRVINE02, WeissSat-1		 Falcon 9 CCAFS SLC-40
October 2018[26] ELaNa XX 11 CACTUS-1, CAPE-3, ExoCube-2, INCA, MicroMas-2b, MiTEE, PICS, PolarCube, Q-PACE, RadFXSat-2, TechEdSat-7 LauncherOne Air launch to orbit from Virgin Galactic's Cosmic Girl above Mojave desert, California
November 2018[26] ELaNa 21 9 (Cygnus CRS OA-10E)
CAPSat, CySat-1, HARP, KickSat-2, SPACE HAUC, TechEdSat-8, TJREVERB, UNITE, Virginia CubeSat Constellation		 Antares 230 / Cygnus MARS pad 0A, Wallops
November 2018[26] ELaNa XV 3 (Space Test Program-2)
ARMADILLO, LEO, StangSat[27]		 Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC-39A

References

  1. ↑ ELaNa: Educational Launch of Nanosatellites. NASA. 2017.
  2. 1 2 Rocket Lab Signs NASA Partnership to Tap Launch Resources. Caleb Henry 31 July 2015.
  3. ↑ Rocket Lab poised to provide dedicated launcher for CubeSat science. Adam Mann, Science Magazine. 6 December 2017.
  4. ↑ Kathryn Hambleton; George H. Diller (14 October 2015). "NASA Awards Venture Class Launch Services Contracts for CubeSat Satellites". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  5. ↑ NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative Broadens Access to Space for Educators, Nonprofits. NASA. 3 August 2017.
  6. ↑ ELaNa-I NASA.
  7. ↑ CUBESAT ELaNa VI LAUNCH ON L-36 Mission. (PDF). NASA
  8. ↑ "NASA Helps Launch Student-Built Satellites and latest PhoneSat as Part of CubeSat Launch Initiative". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. ↑ ORS-3 Mission Fact Sheet
  10. ↑ CubeSat ELaNa IV Launch on ORS-3. (PDF) NASA
  11. ↑ "ELaNa II Mission Helps Launch Student-Built Satellites". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  12. ↑ "NASA Launches the Dreams of the Crowd on the ELaNa V Mission as part of CubeSat Launch Initiative". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  13. ↑ ELaNa V CubeSat Launch on SpaceX-3 Mission. March 2014. NASA.
  14. ↑ "University Satellites Studying Space Weather and Climate Change Will Launch on NASA's ELaNa X Mission". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  15. ↑ ELaNa X CubeSat Launch on SMAP Mission. NASA. January 2015.
  16. ↑ "ELaNa XII Launches 4 CubeSats into Orbit on NROL-55". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  17. ↑ ELaNa CubeSat Launches. NASA.
  18. ↑ Erin Mahoney, ed. (30 October 2015). "ELaNa VII CubeSat Launch on ORS-4 Mission". NASA. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  19. ↑ (ORS-4)
  20. ↑ ELaNa VII CubeSat Launch on ORS-4 Mission. NASA. 4 November 2015.
  21. ↑ Clark, Stephen. "Air Force declares failure on Super Strypi test launch". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  22. ↑ Mahoney, Erin (December 1, 2015). "NASA ELaNa IX Mission Launches First CubeSat Built By Elementary School Students". CubeSat Launch Initiative. NASA. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  23. ↑ ELaNa XVII International Space Station CubeSat Deployment. NASA. March 2017.
  24. ↑ SpaceX Falcon 9 launches CRS-12 Dragon mission to the ISS. William Graham, NASA Spaceflight. 14 August 2017
  25. 1 2 Past ElaNa CubeSat Launches. NASA.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Clark, Stephen (July 19, 2018). "Launch schedule". SpaceFlight Now. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  27. 1 2 "Upcoming ElaNa CubeSat Launches". NASA. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
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