World's Smallest Satellites Launched in India

The world's smallest satellites, weighing less than 15 pounds each, were launched into orbit Feb. 25, 2013 from an Indian spaceport.

The Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle carried the two Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) nano satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on a mission to study the brightest stars in the night sky.

According to Space.com, the nano satellites look like little cubes. The satellites that are less than 8 inches wide weigh less than 15.5 pounds. The BRITE satellites are a part of the new wave of nanosatellites that can be designed, assembled and deployed cheaply and at a faster rate. BRITE mission will see the satellite that was designed and assembled at the Space Flight Laboratory of the University of Toronto. Its twin was designed in Canada but assembled in Austria.

Prior to this, the nano satellites were used to study the Earth and experiment with new technologies. BRITE is the first nano satellite to be used for an astronomy constellation of various sizes. In 2003, the world record holder for small astronomy satellite was the MOST satellite.

BRITE will snap pictures but will observe the stars and register changes in the brightness that occurs over time. It is planned that after a few years BRITE will become a constellation of six satellites, one from a Polish pair, one Canadian pair and one Austrian pair.

According to the University of Toronto, each twin in a pair will observe the sky in different colors, red or blue, thereby providing sufficient data for scientists.

"BRITE is expected to demonstrate that nanosatellites are now capable of a performance that was once thought impossible for such small spacecraft," Cordell Grant, manager of satellite systems for the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies was quoted as saying in Space.com.

Along with BRITE, onboard were the SARAL satellite, Danish Satellite and a satellite from the U.K.