UNITE (Undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer) was a

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 ...

nanosatellite A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites c ...

developed by the

University of Southern Indiana The University of Southern Indiana (USI) is a public university just outside of Evansville, Indiana. Founded in 1965, USI enrolls 9,750 dual credit, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in more than 130 areas of study. USI offers program ...

. The project was funded 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 ...

's Undergraduate Student Instrument Project and primarily designed and built by students. It was launched into space on 5 December 2018 and deployed into its orbit from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

on 31 January 2019. Its mission included measuring plasma in the lower

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

and monitoring the drag and temperature of the satellite itself. UNITE reentered the atmosphere on 21 October 2021, after 994 days in orbit.

References

External links

Official site
Satellites deployed from the International Space Station Spacecraft launched in 2018 Spacecraft which reentered in 2021 Student satellites Nanosatellites CubeSats {{US-spacecraft-stub