Kestrel Eye Deploys from ISS

The U.S. Army SMDC's Kestrel Eye II M imaging microsat has deployed from the ISS, and first contact was made at 08:01 CDT today. Kestrel Eye was built by Adcole Maryland (formerly Maryland Aerospace, Inc (MAI)). Pumpkin was involved in the early development of the first Kestrel Eye (originally called NanoImageSat), supplying the C&DH module and prototype 35mm image capture subsystem. 

Pumpkin has delivered multiple solar panels to another SMDC program with spaceflight heritage -- SMDC One, a 3U CubeSat-based system.

Pumpkin has worked with Adcole Maryland / MAI since 2008 on integrating their MAI-100 and MAI-400 ADACS into a variety of Pumpkin 3U and 6U CubeSats, including the NRO's Colony I program (MAI-100), and various Pumpkin MISC 3 and 6U SUPERNOVA spacecraft (MAI-400 with dual IR Earth Horizon Sensors). We congratulate Adcole Maryland on their most recent success -- they've earned it!

More information on the Kestrel Eye II deployment is available online.