IRVINE02[1] is an educational 1U CubeSat mission that gives high school students the experience of building, testing, and controlling a nano-satellite to develop interest and talent in the science and engineering fields. The mission features the second orbital ion electrospray thruster developed by Accion Systems. Beyond the thruster, IRVINE02 utilizes magnetorquers, deployable solar arrays, a GPS unit, and a miniaturized 1.4 Watt blue laser communication module to transmit pictures and data back to Earth. The magnetorquers and the laser are both developed by the Ecuadorian Space Agency. This laser made IRVINE02 the first 1U cubesat to fly with an orbit-to-ground laser communications device. It transmits data and pictures to the Earth much faster than radio.[2]
IRVINE02 is the second CubeSat built by ICSP, the first being IRVINE01.
On February 17, 2017, NASA selected IRVINE02 to participate in NASA's eighth class of Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) CubeSat launch candidates.[3]
IRVINE02 launched on December 3, 2018[4] from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Spaceflight Industries SSO-A: Smallsat Express mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket alongside 64 other spacecraft.[5]
← 2017 · Orbital launches in 2018 · 2019 → | |
|---|---|
| January | USA-280 / Zuma – SuperView / Gaojing-1 03 · 04 – BeiDou-3 M7 · M8 – Cartosat-2F · Microsat · INS-1C · PicSat · ICEYE-X1 · Fox-1D – LKW-3 – ASNARO-2 – Jilin 1 07 · 08 · Xiaoxiang · Zhou Enlai · Kepler · Quantutong-1 – USA-282 / SBIRS-GEO-4 – "Still Testing" (Dove Pioneer · Lemur-2 × 2 · Humanity Star) – Yaogan 30K · 30L · 30M · Weina 1A – SES-14 · Al Yah 3 – GovSat-1 / SES-16 |
| February | Kanopus-V No. 3 · No. 4 · S-Net × 4 · Lemur-2 × 4 – CSES · ÑuSat 4, 5 – TRICOM-1R – Falcon Heavy test flight (Tesla Roadster) – BeiDou-3 M3 · M4 – Progress MS-08 – Paz · Tintin A & B – IGS-Optical 6 |
| March | GOES-17 – Hispasat 30W-6 – O3b × 4 (FM13 to FM16) – Soyuz MS-08 – GSAT-6A – EMKA / Kosmos 2525 – BeiDou-3 M9 · M10 – Iridium NEXT 41–50 – Gaofen-1-02 · 03 · 04 |
| April | Dragon CRS-14 · 1KUNS-PF · Irazú · UBAKUSAT – Superbird-B3 · HYLAS-4 – Yaogan 31A · 31B · 31C · Weina 1B – IRNSS-1I – AFSPC-11 · EAGLE – Blagovest-12L / Kosmos 2526 – TESS – Sentinel-3B – Zhuhai-1 × 5 |
| May | Apstar 6C – InSight · MarCO A, B – Gaofen-5 – Bangabandhu-1 – Chang'e 4 Relay – Cygnus CRS OA-9E · RaInCube – Iridium NEXT 51–55 · GRACE-FO × 2 |
| June | Gaofen-6 – SES-12 – Fengyun-2H – Soyuz MS-09 – IGS-Radar 6 – GLONASS-M 756 / Kosmos 2527 – XJSS A · B – Dragon CRS-15 (Biarri-Squad × 3 · BHUTAN-1 · Maya-1 · UiTMSAT-1) |
| July | PRSS-1 · PakTES-1A – BeiDou IGSO-7 – Progress MS-09 – Telstar 19V – Galileo FOC 19–22 – Iridium NEXT 56–65 – BeiDou-3 M5 · M6 – Gaofen 11 |
| August | |
| September | HY-1C – Telstar 18V – ICESat-2 — SSTL S1-4 · NovaSAR-1 – BeiDou-3 M13 · M14 – Kounotori 7 – Azerspace-2 / Intelsat 38 · Horizons-3e – CentiSpace-1-S1 |
| October | SAOCOM 1A – Yaogan 32A · 32B – Soyuz MS-10 – BeiDou-3 M15 · M16 – AEHF-4 – BepiColombo – HY 2B – Lotos-S1 No. 3 / Kosmos 2528 – Weilai-1 – CFOSAT – GOSAT-2 · KhalifaSat · Diwata-2B · Stars-AO · AUTcube2 |
| November | BeiDou-3 G1Q – GLONASS-M 757 / Kosmos 2529 – MetOp-C – "It's Business Time" (Lemur-2 × 2 · CICERO · IRVINE01 · NABEO · Proxima × 2) – GSAT-29 – Es'hail 2 – Progress MS-10 – Cygnus NG-10 – BeiDou-3 M17 · M18 – Jiading-1 · Tianping-1A, 1B · Tianzhi-1 · Weixing-6 – Mohammed VI-B – HySIS · Blacksky Global 1 · 29 more CubeSats – Strela-3M 16–18 / Kosmos 2530–2532 |
| December | Soyuz MS-11 – Eu:CROPIS · ESEO · IRVINE02 · Orbital Reflector (one of 64 CubeSats on the SSO-A mission) – GSAT-11 · GEO-KOMPSAT 2A – SpaceX CRS-16 – SaudiSat 5A, 5B – Chang'e 4 (Yutu-2) – "This One's For Pickering" (RSat-P · CubeSail · total 16 CubeSats) – GSAT-7A – CSO-1 – Blagovest-13L / Kosmos 2533 – Hongyun 1 – USA-289 / GPS IIIA-01 – TJSW-3 – Kanopus-V No. 5 · No. 6 · GRUS-1 · D-Star ONE iSat · D-Star ONE Sparrow · Flock-3k × 12 · Lemur-2 × 8 · Lume-1 · ZACube-2 – Hongyan 1 · Yunhai-2 01–06 |
Launches are separated by dashes ( – ), payloads by dots ( · ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). CubeSats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are in italics. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in brackets). | |