HawkSat-1 was a single-unit
CubeSat which was built and is being operated by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences (HISS),
Pocomoke City, Maryland. It is based on a Pumpkin Inc. CubeSat kit, and carries a
technology demonstration payload, primarily as a
proof of concept mission, testing command, data and power subsystems, as well as
solar panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
s and
communications.
It carries a commercial material exposure research payload for an undisclosed "major aerospace company",
[ ] which exposes a number of material samples to space, and records the effects of exposure on the materials. The data was to be sent to
Earth by means of a storage and dump communication system.
Launch
It was successfully launched on an
Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur I
The Minotaur I, or just Minotaur is an American expendable launch system derived from the Minuteman II missile. It is used to launch small satellites for the US Government, and is a member of the Minotaur family of rockets produced by Orbital Sci ...
launch vehicle from
Pad 0B at the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at 23:55
UTC on 19 May 2009. It was a tertiary payload, with
TacSat-3
TacSat-3 is the second in a series of U.S. military experimental technology and communication satellites. It was assembled in an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Th ...
as the primary payload and
PharmaSat as the secondary. Two other CubeSats,
AeroCube-3 and
CP6, were launched on the same launch vehicle, and together the three satellites are known as the CubeSat Technology Demonstration mission.
Mission
The satellite was successfully deployed in orbit, but no signals were received.
Atmospheric entry
The satellite
reentered in the
atmosphere of Earth on 4 September 2011.
[ ]
See also
*
List of CubeSats
References
External links
*
* http://www.hawkspace.org/history.php Hawk Institute for Space Sciences - history
Spacecraft launched in 2009
CubeSats
Spacecraft launched by Minotaur rockets
Spacecraft which reentered in 2011
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