TOP.12 // MISSIONS
PocketQube & CubeSat Flight Heritage & Census (1999–2026)
Complete launch census of 93 PocketQubes and benchmark CubeSats across 25 sovereign nations and ESA: from 2003 CubeSat pioneers and 2013 WREN/$50SAT to Delfi-PQ, FossaSat, SMOG/MRC-100, Grizu-263A, MarCO, and CAPSTONE.
1. SatWiki Encyclopedia Specifications (12)
- SQ-MSN-009
The 2003 Eurockot Pioneer CubeSats (XI-IV, CUTE-1, CanX-1, AAUSAT, DTUsat-1 & QuakeSat)
Engineering breakdown and orbital outcomes of the six inaugural CubeSats launched on 30 June 2003 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome aboard a Eurockot Breeze-KM vehicle.
- SQ-MSN-010
Earth Observation, Weather & RF Monitoring CubeSats (Dove, Lemur-2, GOMX-3, RainCube & OPS-SAT)
Optical diffraction limits, 3-axis reaction wheel pointing, deployable solar wings, and X/Ka-band payloads across 3U and 6U Earth observation and meteorology CubeSats.
- SQ-MSN-011
Interplanetary & Deep-Space CubeSats (MarCO, LICIACube, CAPSTONE, Milani & Juventas)
Telecommunications at 1 AU, cold-gas momentum desaturation outside Earth’s magnetosphere, reflectarray high-gain antennas, and autonomous optical navigation on 6U and 12U deep-space CubeSats.
- SQ-MSN-012
QB50 Thermosphere Constellation & Landmark Educational CubeSats (FUNcube, ESTCube, PW-Sat2, BeEagleSat & HAVELSAT)
Multi-point lower thermosphere in-situ sensing with 36 university 2U CubeSats (including Türkiye’s BeEagleSat and HAVELSAT), amateur linear transponders (FUNcube/Nayif-1), and drag-sail deorbit demonstrators.
- SQ-SS-008
Payloads
What small satellites carry: radios and spectrum monitors, cameras, laser-ranging reflectors, sensors, propulsion and materials experiments. In a PocketQube the payload competes for a few square boards, a fraction of half a watt and a downlink of kilobytes per pass.
- SQ-MS-002
First PocketQubes (2013)
The four founding PocketQubes released from UniSat-5 on 21 November 2013 ($50SAT, WREN, Beakersat-1 and QubeScout-S1) that proved the 50 mm format in orbit.
- SQ-MS-003
Hungarian PocketQubes (SMOG-P, ATL-1, SMOG-1, MRC-100)
Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) picosatellite series that mapped global DVB-T UHF spectrum pollution from LEO and pioneered redundant 1P/3P bus architecture.
- SQ-MS-004
FossaSat family
Spanish PocketQube series by Fossa Systems that flight-demonstrated UHF LoRa chirp spread spectrum from a 1P in 2019 and scaled into the 2P FossaSat-2E commercial IoT constellation.
- SQ-MS-005
AMSAT-EA PocketQubes (GENESIS, EASAT-2, HADES)
Amateur-radio 1P and 1.5P PocketQubes built by AMSAT-EA and Spanish universities carrying FM/FSK voice and digital repeaters into low Earth orbit.
- SQ-MS-006
Delfi-PQ
Delft University of Technology’s 3P PocketQube launched on 13 January 2022 that flight-qualified the open PQ9 RS-485 avionics bus and micro-resistojet propulsion.
- SQ-MS-001
Grizu-263A
Türkiye’s first PocketQube: a 237 g 1P built by the Grizu-263 Space Team of Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, launched on Transporter-3 in January 2022. It operated for 628 days with passive magnetic attitude control, dual-rate UHF telemetry and a digipeater.
- SQ-MS-007
Hello Space PocketQubes (Istanbul, Hello Test-1 & 2)
Commercial IoT PocketQube series launched in 2023 by Turkish startup Hello Space aboard Falcon 9 Transporter-8 and Transporter-9.
2. Interactive Lab Calculators & Workbenches (3)
3. Technical Notes (2)
- NL-TN-2026-016
Tracking a 5 cm satellite
A bare 50 mm cube sits deep in the Rayleigh scattering regime for UHF space-surveillance radars, yielding a radar cross-section near −43 dBsm. Once its 437 MHz tape-spring monopole or dipole deploys, resonant wire scattering boosts RCS by 25–30 dB. We examine radar cross-section across UHF, S-band and X-band and explain how Differential Doppler resolves rideshare TLE lotteries.
- NL-TN-2026-001
Orbital decay and lifetime of PocketQubes and CubeSats
We derive the drag-driven decay of a circular low Earth orbit from the energy equation, evaluate it with the single-scale-height density model of Kennewell driven by F10.7 and Ap, and produce lifetime tables for PocketQube and CubeSat form factors from 300 to 650 km. From 500 km at moderate activity a fully loaded 1P lives 1.7 years and a 1U 3.1 years; solar activity alone moves the 1P between 0.7 and 5.8 years. Checked against the re-entries of Grizu-263A and Delfi-PQ, both released from Transporter-3, the model overestimates lifetime at constant flux, as expected from a single scale height and the fast rise of Solar Cycle 25. We close with how lifetimes should be reported.
4. Research Monographs (2)
5. Engineering Course Modules (2)
- MODULE 01
The Physics of Miniature Scaling (L, L², L³)
Why shrinking a satellite from 10 cm (1U) to 5 cm (1P) changes surface-to-mass ratio, thermal time constant, and rotational inertia by orders of magnitude.
- MODULE 11
CubeSat Design Specification (CDS Rev. 14.1) & PC/104 Bus Architecture
How 1U–16U CubeSats scale from 100×100×113.5 mm rails to 226.3×100×366 mm 6U dispensers, MIL-A-8625 Type III hard anodizing, separation switches, and the 90×96 mm PC/104 avionics stack.