Small Spacecraft Technology

NASA is developing new deployable structures and materials technologies for solar sail propulsion systems destined for future low-cost deep space missions. The mission uses composite materials in its novel, lightweight booms that deploy from a CubeSat. ACS3 is slated to launch on Tuesday, April 23 (Wednesday, April 24 in New Zealand).

A microwave oven–sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds is the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit as part of NASA’s CAPSTONE mission. CAPSTONE launched on June 28, 2022 aboard a Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. CAPSTONE entered lunar orbit in November 2022.

The CLICK mission will demonstrate technology to advance the state of the art in communications between small spacecraft as well as the capability to gauge their relative distance and location. CLICK is comprised of two sequential missions. CLICK A launched on July 14, 2022 aboard SpaceX's 25th Commercial Resupply Service (CRS-25) mission to the International Space Station. The CLICK B/C launch is anticipated no earlier than August 2025.

NASA is funding designers of small spacecraft at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, to develop a technology demonstration of an evolutionary alternative to the CubeSat standard that maintains the benefits of that platform while overcoming key limitations. DiskSat is a plate-shaped satellite 40 inches in diameter and an inch thick that could offer more power and surface area for instruments, providing more opportunities for NASA to expand upon target mission objectives for small spacecraft. This first DiskSat demonstration is anticipated to launch no earlier than April 2026.

This series of technology demonstrations will benefit future missions by demonstrating the operation of new subsystem technologies on orbit. These include propulsion systems that provide the capability to maneuver small science platforms; novel technologies to generate more electrical power for deep space small spacecraft missions; and laser communications systems that will greatly increase the amount of data that can be transmitted from the spacecraft to the ground. PTD-4 and PTD-5 are anticipated to launch no earlier than June 2024.

NASA’s Starling mission is advancing the readiness of various technologies for cooperative groups of spacecraft – also known as distributed missions, clusters, or swarms. Starling will demonstrate technologies to enable multipoint science data collection by several small spacecraft flying in swarms. The six-month mission will use four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit to test four technologies that let spacecraft operate in a synchronized manner without resources from the ground. Starling launched July 17, 2023 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.