NASA Set To Launch Shoebox-sized Satellite Studying Earth's Upper Atmosphere

  • Released Wednesday, August 2, 2017
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NASA scientists and engineers named their new CubeSat after the mythological Norse god of the dawn. Now, just days from launch, they are confident the shoebox-sized satellite Dellingr will live up to its name and inaugurate a new era for scientists wanting to use small, highly reliable satellites to carry out important, and in some cases, never-before-tried science.

Dellingr will study how the ionosphere, a region in Earth’s upper atmosphere, interacts with the Sun. Before launch, Dellingr is required to visit to the Magnetic Test Facility at NASA Goddard to test the spacecraft's magnetometers - key instruments for measuring the direction and strength of the magnetic fields that surround Earth.

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch this August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station where it will be deployed later into a low-Earth orbit.

Complete transcript available.

Music credit: 'Cycle of Life' by Philippe Lhommet [SACEM] from Killer Tracks

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

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Dellingr is purposely designed to be more reliable than more widely used CubeSat platforms and will gather data about the Sun's influence on Earth's upper atmospehre. A GIF optimized for Twitter.

Dellingr is purposely designed to be more reliable than more widely used CubeSat platforms and will gather data about the Sun's influence on Earth's upper atmospehre.

A GIF optimized for Twitter.

On Nov. 20, 2017, the Dellingr CubeSat was deployed from the International Space Station and released into a low-Earth orbit to monitor the Sun's impact on Earth's upper atmosphere.

Credit: Nanoracks

On Nov. 20, 2017, the Dellingr CubeSat was deployed from the International Space Station and released into a low-Earth orbit to monitor the Sun's impact on Earth's upper atmosphere.

Credit: Nanoracks

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, August 2, 2017.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:47 PM EDT.

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