Departing the ISS on January 16 were six CubeSats (smallsats) that carried Amateur Radio payloads.
These smallsats were pushed out of the ISS via the Kibo airlock using the new JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD developed by JAXA.
The series of deployments was conducted in the following order.
- First: three 1U-sized CubeSats, each developed by University of Tsukuba (ITF-2), Waseda University (WASEDA-SAT3), and Nakashimata Engineering Works, Ltd./Tohoku University (FREEDOM)
- Second: A 3U-sized CubeSat by the University of Tokyo (EGG)
- Third: A 2U-sized CubeSat co-developed by Kyushu Institute of Technology and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (AOBA-Velox III)
- Last: A 3U-sized CubeSat, TuPOD (containing two microsatellites called TubeSats) co-developed by JAMSS/GAUSS/Tancred elementary school and INPE (Brazil)/OSN (U.S.)
Several CubeSats carrying Amateur Radio payloads were placed into orbit on January 16 from the International Space Station (ISS). Six CubeSats delivered to the ISS in December were deployed from the Kibo airlock using the new JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has posted a video on the launches and related activities. To view the video, select the graphic to the right.