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VCC A, B, C (Aeternitas, Libertas, Ceres)

VCC B (Libertas) [UVA]

The VCC or Virginia CubeSat Constellation mission consists of a three 1U CubeSats. The mission is jointly conducted by four universities from Virginia, the Old Dominion University (ODU), Virginia Tech (VT), the University of Virginia (UVA) and Hampton University (HU). ODU, VT, and UVA are building CubeSats and HU provides post-mission support anddata analysis. The mission is led by the Old Dominion Research Foundation.

The Virginia CubeSat Constellation mission to deploy three 1U CubeSats simultaneously to meet both science and technology objectives. The science objective will be to obtain measurements of the orbital decay of multiple satellites to obtain in situ quantification of atmospheric drag and the variability of atmospheric properties. The technology objective will be to evaluate and demonstrate a system to determine and communicate relative and absolute spacecraft position across an orbiting constellation. This objective will support the science investigation but will also demonstrate that small, low-power radios (both traditional and software defined radios, or SDRs) can be used for assessing relative satellite separation distances in constellation missions.

The satellites carry a software defined radio.

The VCC mission was selected in 2017 by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) to be launched as part of the ELaNa program.

The three satellites were launched on 17 April 2019 on the ELaNa-26 mission on Cygnus CRS-11 towards the ISS, where they were deployed on 3 July 2019. Since then, it was not possible to establish contact with the three satellites.

Nation: USA
Type / Application: Technology
Operator: Old Dominion University (ODU), Virginia Tech (VT), University of Virginia (UVA)
Contractors: Old Dominion University (ODU), Virginia Tech (VT), University of Virginia (UVA)
Equipment:
Configuration: CubeSat (1U)
Propulsion:
Power: Solar cells, batteries
Lifetime:
Mass: 1 kg
Orbit: 409 km × 413 km, 51.64° (#A, B, C)
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
VCC A (Aeternitas) 1998-067QN 17.04.2019 WI LC-0A Antares-230 with Cygnus CRS-11, VCC B, C, Bird JPN, Bird LKA, Bird NPL, IOD-GEMS, SpooQy 1, Światowid, KrakSat, AeroCube 10A, AeroCube 10B, SASSI2, Seeker, EntrySat, ThinSat 1A, ..., 1L
VCC B (Libertas) 1998-067QR 17.04.2019 WI LC-0A Antares-230 with Cygnus CRS-11, VCC A, C, Bird JPN, Bird LKA, Bird NPL, IOD-GEMS, SpooQy 1, Światowid, KrakSat, AeroCube 10A, AeroCube 10B, SASSI2, Seeker, EntrySat, ThinSat 1A, ..., 1L
VCC C (Ceres) 1998-067QQ 17.04.2019 WI LC-0A Antares-230 with Cygnus CRS-11, VCC A, B, Bird JPN, Bird LKA, Bird NPL, IOD-GEMS, SpooQy 1, Światowid, KrakSat, AeroCube 10A, AeroCube 10B, SASSI2, Seeker, EntrySat, ThinSat 1A, ..., 1L

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