Three Cubesats Directly Launched From ISS This Week

Three nanosatellites, also known as Cubesats, were deployed from a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD) attached to the Kibo laboratory's robotic arm at 7:10 a.m. (EST) on Nov. 19, 2013.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, Expedition 38 flight engineer, monitored the satellite deployment while operating the Japanese robotic arm from inside Kibo. The Cubesats were delivered to the International Space Station Aug. 9, aboard Japan's fourth H-II Transfer Vehicle, Kounotori-4.

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a volume of exactly one liter (10 cm cube), has a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms, and typically uses commercial off-the-shelf components for its electronics.

Beginning in 1999, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and Stanford University developed the CubeSat specifications to help universities worldwide to perform space science and exploration.

The CubeSat specification accomplishes several high-level goals. Simplification of the satellite's infrastructure makes it possible to design and produce a workable satellite at low cost. Encapsulation of the launcher-payload interface takes away the prohibitive amount of managerial work that would previously be required for mating a piggyback satellite with its launcher. Unification among payloads and launchers enables quick exchanges of payloads and utilization of launch opportunities on short notice.

The term "CubeSat" was coined to denote nano-satellites that adhere to the standards described in the CubeSat design specification.

With their relatively small size, CubeSats could each be made and launched for an estimated $65,000-$80,000 (as of 2004). This price tag, far lower than most satellite launches, has made CubeSat a viable option for schools and universities across the world. Because of this, a large number of universities and some companies and government organizations around the world are developing CubeSats. -- Source: NASA, Wikipedia