(C)QB50 Project
Brussels, Belgium - Two weeks ago the launch preparation activities
managed by VKI/ISIS/NanoRacks were successfully concluded at Innovative
Solutions In Space B.V. facilities. Twenty-eight (28) CubeSats of the QB50
constellation were integrated into eleven (11) NanoRacks 6U deployers.
After a formal handover of the hardware to NanoRacks LLC, the CubeSats and
the deployers were shipped to NanoRacks’s facilities in Houston (US).
Today the hardware has been cleared out at the US customs and then it will
be transported to the cleanroom of NanoRacks. In a window of time between
Dec 19th 2016 to Jan 9th 2017 all deployers will be finally delivered to
Lockheed Martin which is responsible for the Cargo Mission Contract (CMC).
From there on, Lockheed Martin will be in charge of loading the deployers
into the Cygnus CRS OA-7 Cargo for a launch atop an Atlas V from Cape
Canaveral SLC-40 on March 16th 2017 (date/time to be confirmed).
Additional CubeSats for the ISS
Additional three (3) CubeSats are making their way to Houston following
different routes from Russia, India and California. These CubeSats will
be then integrated into a single deployer directly by NanoRacks in their
facilities.
When the CubeSats will be deployed into space?
The configuration of the deployment from the ISS has been defined during
the integration campaign. The CubeSats will be deployed from the ISS into
two consecutive airlock cycles separated by 60 days (exact dates to be
confirmed by NASA according to the ISS crew schedule). The configuration
of the deployment sequence with the correspondent sensor unit is given
in the table below.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ei7m-wkt/numbr926.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/qb50sat2.htm