Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) is an initiative created by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. The program is managed by the

Launch Services Program The NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) is responsible for procurement of launch services for NASA uncrewed missions and oversight of launch integration and launch preparation activity, providing added quality and mission assurance to meet program ...

(LSP) at NASA's

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

in Florida. NASA and Firefly Aerospace are planning to launch eight CubeSats as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 43, targeting no earlier than Wednesday, June 26. Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket, in a mission dubbed “Noise of Summer,” will lift off from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Overview

The ELaNa initiative has made partnerships with universities in the US to design and launch small research satellites called

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

s (because of their cube shape). These low-cost CubeSat missions provide NASA with valuable opportunities to test emerging technologies that may be useful in future space missions, while university students get to be involved in all phases of the mission, from instrument and satellite design, to launch and monitoring. A CubeSat has a cubic shape measuring 10 × 10 × 10 cm (1 unit or 1U), and can be fabricated of multiple cubic units such as 2U, 3U and 6U, and weighing 1.33 kg per unit. Because of the high cost incurred by launching them to orbit, ELaNa's satellites are launched as secondary payload on other missions that have mass and space to spare. Since the launch waiting list has grown considerably, another initiative was launched in 2015 in partnership with the private industry to develop launch vehicles dedicated to CubeSats exclusively. A new company is called

Rocket Lab Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...

and their launch vehicle is the Electron rocket. In 2015, NASA contracted two other companies for this purpose:

Firefly Space Systems Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an America, American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops Small-lift launch vehicle, small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial orbital spaceflight, launches to orbit. The curren ...

and

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

. Nevertheless, NASA CubeSats will continue to hitch rides as secondary payloads in larger rockets whenever possible. As of August 2017, NASA's ELaNa initiative has selected 151 CubeSat missions, 49 of which have been launched into space.

Missions

ELaNa mission numbers are based on the order they are manifested; due to the nature of launching, the actual launch order differs from the mission numbers.

Launched missions

Future missions

List of future missions:

Overview

Missions

Launched missions

Future missions

References

External links