CUTE-1.7 + APD II, or CUTE-1.7 + APD 2, is a Japanese nanosatellite which was launched in 2008 as a follow-up to the

CUTE-1.7 + APD CUTE-1.7 + APD (Cubical Tokyo Tech Engineering satellite 1.7 plus Avalanche Photodiode) or CO-56 (Cubesat-Oscar-56) or just OSCAR 56 was an amateur radio satellite in the form of a double CubeSat. The satellite used commercial off-the-shelf com ...

satellite. It was built and is operated by the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Spacecraft

CUTE-1.7 + APD II used a similar design to its predecessor, however it was stretched in height meaning that it no longer complied with the CubeSat form factor which the original satellite was based on. It has dimensions of , compared to for CUTE-1.7 + APD, which was a standard two-unit CubeSat. The onboard computer is a personal digital assistant developed by

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

Mission

The

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

was contracted to launch CUTE-1.7 + APD II, subcontracting the launch to the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

(ISRO) as part of the ''Nanosatellite Launch Service 4'' (NLS-4) mission along with

CanX-2 The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program is a Canadian CubeSat nanosatellite program operated by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL). The program's objectives are to inv ...

, AAUSAT-II, Compass-1, Delfi-C3 and SEEDS-2. ISRO used a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, flight number C9, to launch NLS-4 - with the rocket flying in the Core Alone, or PSLV-CA, configuration. The rocket's primary payload was Cartosat-2A, with

IMS-1 IMS-1 is an Earth observation satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite which is the fourteenth satellite in the Indian Remote Sensing satellite, Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series has been built, launched and maintained by the ...

Rubin-8 RUBIN-8, also known as RUBIN-AIS ( Automatic Identification System), is a German space experiment package, built by OHB-System, which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation, aboard a PSLV rocket, on 28 April 2008. Following launch, ...

and the University of Toronto's NLS-5 mission - consisting of the CanX-6 satellite - also flying aboard the launch vehicle as secondary payloads.

Launch

The launch took place at 03:53:51 UTC on 28 April 2008, with the satellites being deployed from the launch vehicle shortly afterwards. As of , CUTE-1.7 + APD II is in a of apogee and orbit inclined at inclination 97.67° to the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

. Although only designed for a two-month mission, it still remains operational and continues to transmit data to the ground station at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2008 Spacecraft launched in 2008 Student satellites