Three Cornell spacecraft now in NASA's launch queue

Mason Peck, associate professor (MAE), and his team had three new spacecraft selected by the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative to be launched into space. The Alpha 1U CubeSat and two Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation 3U CubeSats now join four other Cornell spacecraft in NASA's launch queue.

Alpha is a technology demonstration mission to deploy a 1x1m light sail with four tiny “chipsats” called Sprites attached. Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation (PAN) is a technology demonstration to launch two 3U CubeSats that will autonomously rendezvous and dock in low-Earth orbit.