CubeSail Status Update: CubeSail was successfully launched by Rocket Lab at 12:33a CST on 12/16/18, and deployed about an hour later. On the first pass over Urbana, IL at 06:02a CST, we received beacon signals from both CubeSail A and B!

If you missed the launch over night, you can catch it on YouTube. Be patient; the action starts about 1:15 into the video.

Read More

Rocket Lab confirms that all ELaNa19 payloads have deployed successfully!

WE HAVE LIFTOFF AND SUCCESSFUL FIRST STAGE SEPARATION!

Rocket Lab's live stream is now active!

Read More

LOX fill is complete! Launch webcast link: https://youtu.be/F7Kr3664hJs  The feed will be live approx. 15 minutes prior to target lift-off at 06:16 UTC

Read More

Rocket Lab says: "We are GO for LOX fill! Get ready to see Electron's stages turn from black to white, as chilled liquid oxygen fills the fuel tanks & creates a thin layer of ice on the outside of the rocket." This is a great step forward toward launch!!

Launch is delayed for tonight, but seems like it may still happen. Rocket Lab says, "Welcome to launch day! We are currently targeting no earlier than 06:16 UTC for today's ELaNa19 mission for NASA. (19:16 NZDT/ 22:16 PST/ 01:16 EST)" We're hoping that 12:16 AM CST launch goes off without a hitch!!

Read More

Follow CubeSail's "personal" Twitter feed!

https://twitter.com/CubeSail_CUA

Read More

‪Sounds like the weather is sticking around in NZ for a couple of days. Rocket Lab says the next launch attempt will be no earlier than 10:00 PM CST on Saturday, Dec. 15.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @CUAerospace for updates as well.

Read More

Tonight's launch attempt has been scrubbed due to NZ weather. Hoping for better weather tomorrow!

Read More

Listen to The 21st, Illinois's statewide news talk show to hear about the CubeSail mission from David Carroll and UIUC.

CubeSail is discussed at 35:10 in the audio link.

Read More

Rocket Lab is currently targeting no earlier than 04:07 UTC, 13 December 2018 for the NASA ELaNa-19 launch. (17:07 NZDT/20:07 PST/23:07 EST).

A live webcast of the launch will begin on this page approximately 15 minutes prior to the target T-0 time.

Read More

Listen to a description of our CubeSail mission on WILL radio, Illinois Public Media.

Read More

The News Gazette has written a great feature article about the CubeSail mission and our upcoming launch, set for 10:00 PM CST tonight!!

Read More

@CUAerospace

https://twitter.com/CUAerospace

Read More

The official launch window for the CubeSail mission opens at 10:00 PM Central Standard Time on Wednesday, December 12 (which is 5:00 PM Dec. 13 in New Zealand)! The mission will launch from New Zealand on a RocketLab Electron rocket provided through the NASA Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) initiative. We will provide updates as they become available. 

Read More

CU Aerospace will have a booth at the 32nd Annual Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah, August 4-9, 2017. Stop by our table, T231, to discuss our latest CubeSat technologies, including CubeSail, PUC, and CHIPS (shown at left).

Read More

The CubeSail mission is detailed by Team leader and UIUC student Dawn Haken.

Read More

CubeSail was successfully fit checked with its railpod launch dispenser at the Rocket Lab facility in Huntington Beach, CA.

Read More

Dawn Haken, a junior in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the student team lead for the IlliniSat 2 bus which is being used for the CU Aerospace CubeSail mission. She is interviewed by the News-Gazette to discuss mission goals and upcoming launch schedule. Watch the video here: http://www.news-gazette.com/video/2017-12-24/wired-dawn-haken.html

Read More

CU Aerospace co-founder Victoria Coverstone is quoted in Planetary Society's solar sailing mission update overview.

Read More

The joint CU Aerospace/University of Illinois mission CubeSail is officially manifested for launch in mid-2017. It will launch through the NASA program Educational Launch of Nanosatellites: Project ELaNa to 85 deg. inclination, 500 km altitude.

The BBC show Stargazing Live tapes on Zero G research flight on which CUA hardware was flown. CubeSail can be seen at 0:52, 0:56, and 3:40 in the YouTube video linked below.

Read More

Senior Engineer, Julia Laystrom-Woodard, tests the CubeSail payload hardware on a Zero G research flight.

Read More

The CU Aerospace/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign team is featured for their UltraSail/CubeSail technology development in NASA Tech Briefs.

Read More

The CU Aerospace CubeSail mission has been featured on the tech blog Next Big Future.

Read More