News

  • September 30, 2019

    CUA Wins NASA Award to Launch its 2nd Satellite

    CUA has been selected by NASA as one of 14 American companies as partners whose Tipping Point technologies will help enable the agency's Moon to Mars exploration approach. This means that CUA will launch its second satellite, with two CUA thruster systems on board, and that CUA's first satellite, CubeSail, will have a satellite cousin on orbit!

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  • September 12, 2019

    CUA will Present at IEPC 2019

    Rod Burton will be presenting at the 36th International Electric Propulsion Conference in Vienna, Austria on Monday, September 16 during the Pulsed Plasma Thrusters session at 2:45 PM. If you are at the IEPC 2019, stop by and see his talk, number A899!

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  • August 04, 2019

    CUA Will Present at SmallSat 2019

    CU Aerospace will be presenting at SmallSat 2019 today at 6:30 CDT (5:30 local time in Logan, Utah). Watch the LiveStream ! !!

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  • July 26, 2019

    CUA at SmallSat 2019

    Come by and visit the CU Aerospace table at SmallSat in Logan, Utah! We will be in the Field House, Table 251T during the entire conference, Monday, August 5 through Thursday, August 8. We will also have a presentation during Technical Session VIII, Advanced Concepts II , of the pre-conference workshop, at 5:30 on Sunday, August 4.

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  • June 18, 2019

    CUA Wins Three NASA Phase I Awards

      CUA was awarded two NASA Phase 1 SBIRs and one NASA Phase 1 STTR titled: "Low Flame Temperature Monopropellant Propulsion Unit for Cubesats (MPUC)" "CubeSail-D: A Module for Accelerated Spacecraft Deorbiting" "Advanced Flow Control System for In-Space Electric Propulsion"

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  • June 03, 2019

    CubeSail mission highlighted in NBC online article

    NBC News discusses solar sails , including the CubeSail mission , that could herald a new era of spaceflight in which spacecraft forgo the rocket motors they've relied on for decades.

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  • April 25, 2019

    CubeSail Mission Highlighted in NASA ELaNa XIX Mission Video

    NASA recently released a documentary featuring the ELaNa XIX launch on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket and the missions included in this historic launch, including CubeSail. See time stamp 7:12 for details about CubeSail.

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  • February 20, 2019

    Launching the CubeSail Satellite

    If you're in the area, stop by the Chillicothe Public Library, 430 N. Bradley Ave., Chillicothe, to hear Dr. Michael F. Lembeck from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at UIUC give a talk, "Launching the CubeSail Satellite," Monday, March 11, 2019 at 6 PM.

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  • December 16, 2018

    Successful Comm with CubeSail!

    CubeSail Status Update: CubeSail was successfully launched by Rocket Lab at 12:33a CST on 12/16/18, and deployed about an hour later. On the first pass over Urbana, IL  at 06:02a CST , we received beacon signals from both CubeSail A and B!

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  • December 16, 2018

    Webcast of CubeSail Launch is Up

    If you missed the launch over night, you can catch it on YouTube . Be patient; the action starts about 1:15 into the video.

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  • December 16, 2018

    All Payloads Deployed!

    Rocket Lab confirms that all ELaNa19 payloads have deployed successfully!

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  • December 16, 2018

    LIFT OFF!!!!!

    WE HAVE LIFTOFF AND SUCCESSFUL FIRST STAGE SEPARATION!

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  • December 16, 2018

    RocketLab Live Feed Active!

    Rocket Lab's live stream is now active!

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  • December 15, 2018

    LOX Fill for Electron Rocket Complete!

    LOX fill is complete! Launch webcast link: https:// youtu.be/F7Kr3664hJs   The feed will be live approx. 15 minutes prior to target lift-off at 06:16 UTC

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  • December 15, 2018

    LOX Fill for Electron Rocket!

    Rocket Lab says: "We are GO for LOX fill! Get ready to see Electron's stages turn from black to white, as chilled liquid oxygen fills the fuel tanks & creates a thin layer of ice on the outside of the rocket." This is a great step forward toward launch!!

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  • December 15, 2018

    Launch Still Set for Tonight, but Delayed

    Launch is delayed for tonight, but seems like it may still happen. Rocket Lab says, "Welcome to launch day! We are currently targeting no earlier than 06:16 UTC for today's ELaNa19  mission for NASA. (19:16 NZDT/ 22:16 PST/ 01:16 EST)" We're hoping that 12:16 AM CST launch goes off without a hitch!!

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  • December 14, 2018

    CubeSail Has Its Own Twitter Feed!

    Follow CubeSail's "personal" Twitter feed! https://twitter.com/CubeSail_CUA

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  • December 13, 2018

    Launch Delayed to Saturday at Earliest

    ‪Sounds like the weather is sticking around in NZ for a couple of days. Rocket Lab says the next launch attempt will be no earlier than 10:00 PM CST on Saturday, Dec. 15. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter  @CUAerospace for updates as well.

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  • December 12, 2018

    Tonight's Launch Scrubbed

    Tonight's launch attempt has been scrubbed due to NZ weather. Hoping for better weather tomorrow!

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  • December 12, 2018

    CubeSail is Highlighted on The 21st

    Listen to The 21st , Illinois's statewide news talk show to hear about the CubeSail mission from David Carroll and UIUC. CubeSail is discussed at 35:10 in the audio link.

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  • December 12, 2018

    CubeSail Launch Update

    Rocket Lab is currently targeting no earlier than 04:07 UTC, 13 December 2018 for the NASA ELaNa-19 launch. (17:07 NZDT/20:07 PST/23:07 EST). A live webcast of the launch will begin on this page approximately 15 minutes prior to the target T-0 time.

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  • December 12, 2018

    CubeSail Described on WILL Radio

    Listen to a description of our CubeSail mission on WILL radio, Illinois Public Media.

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  • December 12, 2018

    CubeSail Launch Featured in News Gazette Article

    The News Gazette has written a great feature article about the CubeSail mission and our upcoming launch, set for 10:00 PM CST tonight!!

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  • December 05, 2018

    Follow us on Twitter

    @CUAerospace https://twitter.com/CUAerospace

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  • December 05, 2018

    CubeSail Offical Launch Window Opens December 12!

    The official launch window for the CubeSail mission opens at 10:00 PM Central Standard Time on Wednesday, December 12 (which is 5:00 PM Dec. 13 in New Zealand)! The mission will launch from New Zealand on a RocketLab Electron rocket provided through the NASA Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) initiative. We will provide updates as they become available. 

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  • July 13, 2018

    VISIT CUA AT SMALLSAT

    CU Aerospace will have a booth at the 32nd Annual Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah, August 4-9, 2017. Stop by our table, T231, to discuss our latest CubeSat technologies, including CubeSail , PUC, and CHIPS (shown at left).

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  • April 19, 2018

    CubeSail in the News

    The CubeSail mission is detailed by Team leader and UIUC student Dawn Haken.

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  • April 13, 2018

    Rocket Lab Performs Successful Fit Check for CubeSail Mission

    CubeSail was successfully fit checked with its railpod launch dispenser at the Rocket Lab facility in Huntington Beach, CA.

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  • December 24, 2017

    CubeSail Satellite Bus Engineer Talks with News-Gazette

    Dawn Haken, a junior in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the student team lead for the IlliniSat 2 bus which is being used for the CU Aerospace CubeSail mission. She is interviewed by the News-Gazette to discuss mission goals and upcoming launch schedule. Watch the video here: http://www.news-gazette.com/video/2017-12-24/wired-dawn-haken.html

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  • August 23, 2017

    CUA Mentioned in Planetary Society Solar Sailing Missions Overview

    CU Aerospace co-founder Victoria Coverstone is quoted in Planetary Society's solar sailing mission update overview.

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  • February 10, 2016

    CUA CubeSail Mission Slated for Launch

    The joint CU Aerospace/University of Illinois mission CubeSail is officially manifested for launch in mid-2017. It will launch through the NASA program Educational Launch of Nanosatellites: Project ELaNa  to 85 deg. inclination, 500 km altitude.

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  • January 08, 2014

    BBC Two airs segment highlighting Zero G research flight

    The BBC show Stargazing Live tapes on Zero G research flight on which CUA hardware was flown. CubeSail can be seen at 0:52, 0:56, and 3:40 in the YouTube video linked below.

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  • November 17, 2013

    CubeSail hardware tested on Zero G flight

    Senior Engineer, Julia Laystrom-Woodard, tests the CubeSail payload hardware on a Zero G research flight.

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  • September 01, 2013

    UltraSail/CubeSail Technology Featured in NASA Tech Briefs

    The CU Aerospace/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign team is featured for their UltraSail/CubeSail technology development in NASA Tech Briefs.

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  • May 31, 2012

    CU Aerospace Featured on Next Big Future

    The CU Aerospace CubeSail mission has been featured on the tech blog Next Big Future.

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