In 2016 the Canadian Space Agency began the process of what would become the Canadian CubeSat Project. Now six years later and after several delays, most induced by the the pandemic, the first two student satellites from this project are scheduled to launch Saturday, Nov. 26.
The first two satellites being launched from the project are the University of Victoria’s ORCASat (Optical and Radio Calibration of Atmospheric Attenuation CubeSat CubeSat) and Dalhousie University’s LORIS (Low Orbit Reconnaissance Imagery Satellite) CubeSat. We recently profiled both projects.
The launch of ORCASat and LORIS is scheduled for Saturday on Falcon 9 launch of SpaceX’s 26th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-26) mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The two small CubeSat’s will be onboard as cargo for future deployment from the ISS by an astronaut.
The instantaneous launch window of the Falcon 9 rocket is at 2:20 p.m. ET (19:20 UTC), with a backup launch opportunity available on Sunday, November 27 at 1:58 p.m. ET (18:58 UTC). You can watch the launch on SpaceQ.
Originally, 15 teams of students from post-secondary institutions in each province and territory were selected for the Canadian CubeSat Project. How many of those teams will actually see their satellites launch is still to be announced.
We do know that the rest of the Canadian CubeSat Project CubeSat’s will launch in 2023. Today, the Canadian Space Agency announced that a second group of seven teams are preparing for launch. This includes teams from; The Yukon College, Aurora Research Institute, University of Alberta, McMaster University, Concordia University, Université de Sherbrooke and York University.