Binar 2, 3, and 4 are travelling with Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo freighter to the space laboratory before being released into low-Earth orbit a few weeks later.
The satellites are carrying instrumentation from CSIRO to test how new materials can protect electronics against harmful radiation in space, alongside transmitters from Perth-based communications systems company AVI.
Once successfully deployed, the CubeSats will orbit the Earth approximately every 90 minutes for 6–12 months at 400 kilometres above the planet’s surface.
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The Cygnus spacecraft, meanwhile, was successfully launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The NG-21 mission is carrying over 8,200 pounds of equipment, science experiments, and supplies to the crew aboard the ISS.
The blast-off did suffer initial problems, though, with the spacecraft not perming some burns needed to raise its orbit.
However, Northrop Grumman insisted Cygnus is now at a safe altitude and engineers are “working a new burn and trajectory plan”.
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It follows the original Binar-1 satellite’s launch in August 2021. It similarly headed to the ISS before being deployed from the Station’s Kibō module.
A team of engineers and PhD students from the Space Science and Technology Centre at Curtin were responsible for the construction of the small CubeSat.
Its primary mission goal was a technology demonstration: the satellite used a novel and innovative design that meant all its satellite systems were integrated into a single circuit board.
Binar-1 eventually crashed back towards Earth in October 2022.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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