To launch three small satellites into low Earth orbit, the company used the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock gateway module, which arrived at the station in December 2020
NEW YORK, October 12. /TASS/. The American aerospace company Nanoracks launched three research satellites from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday. This was announced by the company's press service on Twitter.
To launch three small satellites into low Earth orbit, the company used the Nanoracks Bishop Airlock gateway module, which arrived at the station in December 2020. The CapSat satellite of the University of Illinois (USA) was the first to separate from the gateway (at 14:00 Moscow time), followed an hour and a half later by SuNaR2 of the University of Puerto Rico and SPACE HAUC of the University of Massachusetts (USA).
This mission to remove satellites from the ISS was the 21st for the company. During this time, Nanoracks has already launched more than 200 such small vehicles into orbit. It uses CubeSat Deployer technology, which has been operating since 2014, which allows storing and launching satellites in isolation from the ISS.