SmallSats Launched to Test New Tech.

Four NASA-sponsored CubeSats and a NASA-funded CubeSat, sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), were among thirteen small spacecraft launched from Southern California’s Vandenburg Air Force Base on Oct. 8, as part of an auxiliary payload aboard the NRO-L55 mission. The NASA-funded device will test how accurately a CubeSat can be pointed during high speed data transfer by laser. The NASA-sponsored CubeSats will test new control and communications systems, Earth observations, amateur radio communications and an X-Band radio science transponder.