[SatNews] The successful launch of 21 CubeSats of various sizes on board a DNEPR launch vehicle on June 19, 2014. by nanosatellite company ISIS (Innovative Solutions In Space B.V.) from the Netherlands also marked the inaugural flight of a new type of CubeSat Dispenser; the QuadPack.
ISIS QuadPack FM01, photo courtesy of ISIS.
Two weeks after the first five units were successfully demonstrated in orbit, ISIS has announced that Spaceflight Inc. has selected the QuadPack dispenser as the baseline for CubeSat launches on its 2015 Sherpa launch.
ISIS QB50 precursor integration, photo courtesy of ISIS.
"The ISIS QuadPack deployer system is exactly what we need to accommodate the variety of CubeSat customers we have on this flight," said Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight Inc. As many as 21 QuadPacks will be delivered to Spaceflight Inc. for this first SHERPA launch, having a total CubeSat capacity of 84 launch slots for 3-Unit CubeSats. "It is great to see our partners at SpaceFlight Inc. adopting the QuadPack system for the launch of CubeSats onboard their launches. This system will allow great flexibility for manifesting various sizes of CubeSat payloads", says ISIS co-founder and marketing director Abe Bonnema.
QuadPack hoisting during the Dnepr campaign.
Photo is courtesy of ISC Kosmotras.
The QuadPack is a versatile nanosatellite dispenser that combines the benefits of launching containerized payloads with configuration flexibility in terms of payload size, provided the payloads follow the popular CubeSat standard. Compared to single launch tube CubeSat dispensers, such as ISIS' own ISIPOD, or Andrews Space's equivalent, the EZPOD, the ISIS QuadPack offers a single system that can accommodate four separate 3-Unit launch tubes, or two 6-Unit launch slots, or accommodate a single 12-Unit nanosatellite within the same outer envelope and without changing external interfaces towards the launch vehicle. This allows launch service providers to finalize the launch manifest without the need to know exactly what configuration of CubeSats will be inside the QuadPack so far in advance, offering great flexibility in payload manifesting for small satellite launch service companies such as ISIS and Spaceflight Inc.
The QuadPack has been developed by ISIS as part of the European Union's FP7 QB50 project that aims to deploy 50 CubeSats using a combination of 13 QuadPack dispensers.
More information on the QuadPack CubeSat dispenser is available at the ISIS website: https://www.isispace.nl/.
