Another Colony I Bus on its Way to Orbit

In 2009-2011, Pumpkin developed and delivered a series of twelve 3U-sized CubeSats to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) -- these were the Colony I buses. These 3U CubeSat-size buses had fixed and deployable panels, a full 3-axis ADACS with coarse sun sensors and a magnetometer, an 8051-based C&DH processor, multiple batteries and over 1000cc of payload volume. The NRO distributed Colony I buses to various organizations ranging from the Naval Research Lab (NRL, with their QbXI & QbXII CubeSats) to USC's ISI, with its Aeneas CubeSat. 

The first Colony I bus, with its solar panels deployed in a "dart" configuration.

Yesterday, a group of Students at USC ISIS's SERC delivered another Colony I-based CubeSat, this one to Vector Launch, Inc. This CubeSat is called GalacticSky-1, and its Colony I heritage is clearly visible.

It's interesting to reflect on how versatile the Colony I design turned out to be. In the intervening ten years, Pumpkin has greatly increased the capability of its 3U buses, and in doing so, added more payload volume, processing power, electrical power, battery energy, and sensors. That's now Pumpkin's MISC 3 family, and is ideally suited to IoT and other missions.

Read more about GalacticSky-1 in USC Viterbi's news release.