HawkSat I

HawkSat I

Operator	HISS
Major contractors	Pumpkin Incorporated
Bus	CubeSat (1U)
Mission type	Technology
Launch date	19 May 2009, 23:55 GMT
Carrier rocket	Minotaur I
Launch site	MARS LP-0B
Orbital elements
Regime	Low Earth

HawkSat I is a single-unit CubeSat which was built is being operated by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences. It is based around a Pumpkin Incorporated CubeSat kit, and carries a technology demonstration payload, primarily as a proof-of-concept mission, testing command, data and power subsystems, as well as solar panels and communications.

It also carries a commercial material exposure research payload for an undisclosed "major aerospace company", which exposes a number of material samples to space, and records the effects of exposure on the materials. Experimental data will be returned to Earth by means of a store and dump communications system.

It was successfully launched on an Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur I rocket from Pad 0B at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at 23:55 GMT on 19 May. It was a tertiary payload, with TacSat-3 as the primary payload and PharmaSat as the secondary. Two other CubeSats, AeroCube 3 and CP-6, were launched on the same rocket, and together the three satellites are known as the CubeSat Technology Demonstration mission.

See also

• List of CubeSats

References

• Krebs, Gunter. "HawkSat-1". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
• "CubeSats". TacSat-3 launch. NASA. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
• Davis, Robert. "Cubesat Tech Demo P-POD". Hawk Institute of Space Sciences. Retrieved 2009-05-05.