Past Flight Experiments

AlphA Cubesat

Alpha CubeSat is a mission led by students of the Cornell University Space Systems Design Studio to deploy a ChipSat-equipped free-flying retroreflective light sail in LEO. The spacecraft launched with NASA CSLI on the NG-23 ISS cargo resupply mission on September 14th, 2025 and deployed from the space station as part of NRCSD-29 on December 2nd, 2025. The mission was a success, with all primary mission objectives accomplished.

SailinG to the stars

Sailing to the Stars is an experiment led by students at Cornell University to deploy free-flying light sails within the microgravity environment of the International Space Station. As this light sail architecture is relatively new, additional insights on the sail deployment dynamics and deployer design are needed to guide future use of this technology. The hardware launched to the International Space Station with Crew-11 on August 1st, 2025. Astronauts followed the developed procedures to conduct six light sail deployments in total from two different deployer designs. During each test, data was recorded from the Inertial Measurement Unit within each deployer along with video footage of the deployments.

Cislunar Explorers

Cislunar Explorers was a flight experiment project within the Space Systems Design Studio. It was a 12U CubeSat (cube satellite) demonstrating the viability of water electrolysis propulsion and optical navigation technologies in a GTO to Escape Earth’s Sphere of Influence (SOI) orbit. The primary technology demonstration was water electrolysis propulsion. This mission aimed to pave the way for future missions to demonstrates In Situ Resource Utilization of water. Spacecraft travel is limited by the type of fuel used and the amount of fuel consumption throughout the duration of a mission. Water is abundant in our solar system. Refueling spacecraft with onboard water will enable more delta-v intensive missions.    

PAN

The Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation (PAN) project aimed to launch two 3U+ CubeSats which would autonomously rendezvous and dock in Low Earth Orbit. This aimed to be the first CubeSat mission to ever attempt docking and would have represented one of the most advanced autonomous CubeSat systems that had flown. Demonstrating autonomous rendezvous and docking capabilities on the CubeSat scale would have opened the door to new spaceflight capabilities such as the on-orbit assembly of advanced structures like space stations.

CU SAT

CUSat was a multi-year effort to design, build, and launch an autonomous in-orbit inspection satellite system. The one satellite system would allow us test the accuracy of the centimeter accuracy carrier-phase differential GPS (CDGPS) to less than 10 cm by comparing the CDGPS navigation solution to the known distance between GPS antennas. The satellite, being equipped with a camera, would also capture imagery, of the Earth, the Moon, and the comet ISON, and send these images to a ground station on Earth. The nano-satellite was also equipped with Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs). These were planned to be tested last, once the other mission objectives have been verified.