Passive Inspection CubeSats, or PICS, is a technology demonstration spacecraft mission utilizing two

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 ...

miniaturized satellites, identified as ''PIC-A'' and ''PIC-B''. The project was developed by students at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

(BYU) as part of

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 ...

Educational Launch of Nanosatellites Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) is an initiative created by NASA to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. The program is managed by the Launch Services Program (LSP) at NASA ...

(ELaNA) initiative beginning in 2016. The satellites are outfitted with cameras to be able to get a 360-degree view to visually assess the exterior of other spacecraft and detect possible damage. BYU professor David Long termed the project a "spacecraft selfie cam." PIC-A and PIC-B were originally scheduled to be launched in 2018, but launch was delayed until 2021. PICs was successfully launched into orbit along with eight other CubeSats during

Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit was a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 as a spin-off of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOn ...

's Launch Demo 2 on January 17, 2021. In Virgin Orbit's first successful

air-launch-to-orbit Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) is the method of launching smaller rockets at altitude from a heavier conventional horizontal-takeoff aircraft, to carry satellites to low Earth orbit. It is a follow-on development of air launches of experimental air ...

, the

Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The ''Advanced Series 300'' was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, target ...

'' Cosmic Girl'' carried a

LauncherOne LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by Virgin Orbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023, after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It was an air-launched rocket, designed to carry smallsat ...

orbital rocket from

Mojave Air and Space Port The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a s ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, where LauncherOne separated from the aircraft and achieved orbit.

References

External links

Advanced Spacecraft Group at BYU

* ttps://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/lsp_elana_20_fact_sheet.pdf NASA ELaNa 20 Fact Sheet
video about PICS launch
Brigham Young University Student satellites Spacecraft launched in 2021 CubeSats Amateur radio satellites {{US-spacecraft-stub

See also

References

External links