The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD announced on February 20 that it has successfully established communications with two CubeSats, part of a flight demonstration mission led by APL called the CubeSat Assessment and Test, or CAT, which were launched from the International Space Station (ISS) on January 31.
APL used its 60-foot satellite dish to send and receive data with the two small spacecraft, launched at 5:28 a.m., and confirmed they were operating as designed at 3:07 p.m. The two CubeSats were among several launched from a NanoRacks CubeSat deployer on the ISS.
The 3U CubeSats are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) spacecraft measuring 34 cm long and 10 cm square; each carries a communications payload that was integrated by APL. CAT was delivered to the ISS by the SpaceX CRS-16 Dragon launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on December 5, 2018.
Source: JHU APL
By Loren Blinde
February 22, 2019
