UNITE (Undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer) was a CubeSat nanosatellite developed by the University of Southern Indiana. The project was funded by NASA's

Undergraduate Student Instrument Project Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

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 on 31 January 2019. Its mission included measuring

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

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 an ...

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