Operator HISS Manufacturer Pumpkin Incorporated Launch site MARS LP-0B Launch date 19 May 2009 | Spacecraft type 1U CubeSat Rocket Minotaur I Contractor Orbital Mission type Technology | |
Similar PharmaSat, Nanosat‑1B, Progress M‑66, TacSat‑3, ITUpSAT1 | ||
HawkSat I is a single-unit CubeSat which was built and is being operated by the Hawk Institute for Space Sciences. It is based on 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 CP6, were launched on the same rocket, and together the three satellites are known as the CubeSat Technology Demonstration mission.