Five small cubesats were released into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) from the International Space Station (ISS) via a NRCSD-13 package attached to the JEM module robot arm. The first releases occurred on 20 November. These EcAMSat, ASTERIA and Dellingr, with TechEdSat-6 and OSIRIS-3U deployed the following day. TechEdSat-6 was seen to have its orbit lowered rapidly as it demonstrated a new “exobrake” atmospheric braking system.
The International Space Station (ISS). Courtesy: NASA
The satellites were not all launched to the ISS together. The TechEdSat 6 and microbiology research cubesat, EcAMSat, both arrived with the Cygnus cargo craft in November. OSIRIS-3U, a mission to stude the space weather’s effect on ionosphere, arrived with Dragon CRS-12 in late November as did the ASTERIA technology test satellite and the Dellingr satellite researching the Van Allen belts.
