Nanoracks Resumes Satellite Deployment From The International Space Station

Last summer, satellite deployers on board the International Space Station belonging to space science company NanoRacks developed issues that prevented some cubesats deployed into their orbits. After several months of work and repair, that company has been able to solve those issues and celebrated a deployment of two satellites belonging to Planet Labs on Friday.

The satellite deployment system allows commercial space companies to deliver cubesats small satellites just a few inches around into orbit at a low cost. The cubesats get delivered to the space station during its normal cargo runs and then are deployed by astronauts from the station itself. The satellite deployers were developed and built by NanoRacks.

Planet Labs satellites deployed from the space station. (Credit: NASA)

Directing the repairs required the company to coordinate with NASA as well as the Russian and Japanese space agencies and astronauts on board the space station.

Over the last six months, NASA and JAXA have worked tirelessly with NanoRacks to ensure that the on-orbit hardware adaptations make our CubeSat deployers safe and ready for operations. Its a testament to the ISS Programs ability to cooperate with commercial partners and utilize the resource they have on orbit. NanoRacks External Payloads Account Manager Conor Brown said in a statement.

The repairs to the deployment system included a new commanding system as well as latches to ensure that the deployers remain attached to the space station in case of any malfunction so that they dont pose a danger to the station. The hardware was delivered in January on a SpaceX Dragon capsule and installed earlier in February.

NanoRacks has also developed a new satellite deployment system thats capable of sending larger microsatellites into orbit up to a mass of about 100 kg. That system will be delivered on a SpaceX Dragon launch currently slated for June 2015.

You can watch footage of the satellites being deployed below:

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Nanoracks Resumes Satellite Deployment From The International Space Station