Our Contribution
APL has successfully established communications with two miniaturized satellites, or CubeSats, as part of a Lab-led flight demonstration known as CAT. Each spacecraft carried an industry-provided radio frequency payload and had two identical 3U (nanosatellite) configuration CubeSats with two deployed solar panels. The satellites were launched from the International Space Station in 2019. Capitalizing on APL’s successful small-satellite Multimission Bus Demonstration, the Laboratory conducted preliminary systems engineering activities and subsystem analysis, and developed requirements for this upcoming test.