NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Roland Coelho and Alex Chin, students at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., bolt an adapter plate to the bottom of the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) to prepare the spacecraft for NanoSail-D vibration testing at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. NanoSail-D is snugly housed in the P-POD, a commercially available satellite deployer designed by Cal Poly. The satellite will be ejected into space by the P-POD shortly after it reaches orbit.

Credit: NASA/MSFC/D. Higginbotham

> View larger image