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NASA Ejects Nanosatellite from FASTSat

By Jeffrey Hill | December 7, 2010

      [Satellite TODAY 12-08-10] NASA ejected the NanoSail-D nanosatellite from its Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSat), demonstrating the agency’s first deployment of this kind, NASA announced Dec. 6.
          Nanosatellites are typically launched and deployed from a mechanism called a Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) mounted directly on a launch vehicle. NASA said this is the first time the agency has mounted a P-POD on a microsatellite to eject a nanosatellite.
         FASTSat, equipped with six science and technology demonstration payloads, including NanoSail-D, launched in November from Kodiak Island, Alaska.