NASA Tech and Science Bound for Low Earth Orbit on Commercial Launch
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Technology and science demonstrations, supported by various NASA industry collaborations and agency developments, are set to launch to low Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the company’s Transporter-16 commercial rideshare mission. These demonstrations will test thermal protection systems, advance in-space communications, deepen our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, and foster capabilities for NASA’s exploration, innovation, and research goals.
The 57-minute launch window opens at 6:20 a.m. EDT (3:20 a.m. PDT) on Monday, March 30, from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. SpaceX will provide live coverage of the launch on its website and at @SpaceX on X, beginning about 15 minutes prior to liftoff.
Making big impacts with small satellites
Several demonstrations aboard this mission leverage small spacecraft technology to maximize flexibility, delivering greater value to the agency and its partners at a lower cost.
The AEPEX (Atmosphere Effects of Precipitation through Energetic X-rays) CubeSat will study how high-energy particles from Earth’s radiation belts transfer energy into the upper atmosphere through a process known as energetic particle precipitation. Currently, limited monitoring capabilities make it difficult to observe this phenomenon across large regions of Earth. The AEPEX CubeSat, supported by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative and integrated on the mission via Exotrail, aims to address this by imaging the X-rays produced during precipitation events, enabling scientists to study and map the process. A better understanding of this activity could improve space weather forecasting, which has direct implications for radio communications, satellites, and other critical technologies.
As part of the MagQuest challenge, CubeSats will demonstrate novel solutions for measuring Earth’s magnetic field to inform the World Magnetic Model, which supports national security, commercial aviation, and everyday mobile devices. Launched in 2019 through NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, the agency supported the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in releasing the MagQuest challenge, which culminated in the development of three CubeSats built by three teams that advanced to the final phase of the competition. With testing done at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and additional support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this competition exemplifies successful cross-cutting agency collaboration.
Aboard the TechEdSat23 CubeSat, integrated via Maverick Space Systems, NASA will test three key technologies: a radiation sensor called Radiation Shielding Efficacy Testbed funded by NASA’s Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems (SSDS) office, a miniaturized NOAA Data Collection System radio, and a device called an exo-brake for rapid deorbiting of spacecraft. These technologies will advance critical capabilities for radiation shielding, satellite communications, and space weather monitoring to better equip small spacecraft for operations in low Earth orbit and deep space while acting as a test bed for potential larger scale applications.
The R5-S10 (Realizing Rapid, Reduced-cost high-Risk Research project Spacecraft 10) CubeSat, also supported by the SSDS office, will demonstrate technologies designed to expand the capabilities of small spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Deploying from the Vigoride orbital service vehicle operated by Momentus Space, the R5-S10 CubeSat will test proximity operations and formation flying techniques that allow spacecraft to safely operate at close distances, capabilities that could support future in-space inspection and servicing missions. The R5-S10 CubeSat will also carry a co-aligned event camera and star tracker proving a novel, high dynamic range, and high-rate tolerant star tracker, advancing technology to help spacecraft determine their orientation in space.
Enabling Wi-Fi in space
After deployment from the Vigoride orbital service vehicle, the R5-S10 CubeSat will transfer data from its various demonstrations via Wi-Fi to an in-space router developed by the Solstar Space Company. In partnership with Momentus, Solstar’s in-space Wi-Fi router enables the R5-S10 CubeSat data to be downlinked through the Vigoride orbital service vehicle and eventually transferred to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Solstar advanced its Wi-Fi technology for in-space use through suborbital testing with NASA’s Flight Opportunities program which is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Powering in-space logistics
Also hosted aboard the Vigoride orbital service vehicle is a power processing system from CisLunar Industries. The company’s Electric Power Intelligent Conversion technology is designed to transform power ranging from 1 to 100 kilowatts with greater than 95% efficiency in smaller, lighter designs than the current state-of-the-art. This holds the potential to advance technology for in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing while serving government and commercial markets for dynamic space operations, including electric, dual-mode, and other forms of electric propulsion. The demo also is the first hosted orbital flight test for NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.
Advancing thermal protection technology
NASA also will launch technology on this flight to gather data about hypersonic atmospheric entry using sensors on a capsule from Varda Space Industries. As the latest in a series of flight tests, Varda’s W-6 capsule heat shield is equipped with a pair of instrumented tiles, made at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, that will collect data about the heat and pressure experienced as the capsule returns to Earth. The sensors also will capture performance data about the heat shield, which is made of C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), a material originally developed at NASA Ames that provides stronger, more efficient, and less expensive thermal protection, maximizing the safety and affordability of capsules returning to Earth.
By flying alongside commercial innovations, NASA continues leveraging cost-effective rideshare opportunities to accelerate technology development, innovations, and scientific discovery.
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate manages the agency’s Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems office, Flight Opportunities program, and the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative is managed by the agency’s Launch Services program based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Loura Hall
