NROL39 Atlas V GEMSat Launch December 5, 2013
Twelve CubeSats are set to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket with the NROL-39 primary payload from Vandenberg AFB in California on December 5, 2013. The CubeSat payloads have been provided through NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program and the NRO’s Mission Integration Directorate (MID). The launch window will be announced as it gets closer to launch day. Below is information about each CubeSat including tracking information where available and links to developers’ websites.
| P-POD | Satellite Name | Organization | Size | Beacon Details | More Info |
| 1 | FIREBIRD | Montana State University, University of New Hampshire, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Aerospace Corp. | 1.5U (x2) | Flight Unit 1: 437.405 MHz Flight Unit 2: 437.230 MHz GMSK AX.25 9600bps, 1W, 60 sec period | More Info |
| 2 | AeroCube5 | Aerospace Corp. | 1.5U (x2) | ||
| 3 | ALICE | Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) | 3U | 460 MHz, GFSK, 12.5% duty cycle (5 seconds of 3 bursts per second then 40 seconds of RX)Beacon is based on when ALICE is 2 minutes away from AOS contact with our ground station. This information is uploaded from ephemeris data from our ground station. Will beacon until comms are established. | More Info |
| 4 | SNaP | U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command | 3U | ||
| 5 | MCubed-2 | Michigan eXploration Laboratory | 1U | 437.485 MHz, 9600 baud, 10 sec period | More Info |
| 5 | CUNYSAT-1 | Medgar Evers College, The City University of New York | 1U | 437.505 MHz, 9600 bps GMSK, CW | More Info |
| 5 | IPEX | Cal Poly, PolySat | 1U | 437.270MHz: Morse Code of “IPEX” every 45s at 15wpm, 9600 baud AX.25 GMSK Beacon every 127s and 20s. | More Info |
| 6 | SMDC-ONE (David) | U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command | 3U | More Info | |
| 7 | TacSat-6 | U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command | 3U | ||
| 8 | SMDC-ONE (Charlie) | U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command | 3U | More Info |
The CubeSats are integrated into 8 P-POD deployers which are contained in the NPSCuL built by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). The NPSCuL together with the 8 P-PODs and 12 CubeSats is referred to as the Government Experimental Multi-Satellite (GEMSat), and is attached to the Centaur upper stage’s Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC). The assembled GEMSat is shown in the photo below ready for mate to the launch vehicle along with members of the GEMSat team consisting of NPS, Office of Space Launch (OSL), United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Cal Poly, SLO.
Launch details: link