PocketQube

Not to be confused with Pocket Cube.

A PocketQube is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that usually has a size of cube with 5 cm sides (one eighth the volume of a CubeSat), has a mass of no more than 250 grams, and typically uses commercial off-the-shelf components for its electronics.

PocketQube

Specifications
Launch mass	250 g
Dimensions	5 × 5 × 5 cm (1p)

Beginning in 2009,^[1] Morehead State University (MSU) and Kentucky Space developed the PocketQube specifications to help universities worldwide to perform space science and exploration. While the bulk of development comes from academia, several companies build PocketQubes, such as Fossa Systems and Alba Orbital.^[2] PocketQube projects have even been the subject of Kickstarter campaigns.^[3][4] The PocketQube format is also popular with amateur radio satellite builders.^[5]

Design

The PocketQube specification accomplishes several high-level goals. Simplification makes it possible to design and produce a workable satellite at low cost. Encapsulation of the launcher-payload interface takes away the prohibitive amount of managerial work previously required for mating a piggyback satellite with its launcher. Unification among payloads and launchers enables quick exchanges of payloads and utilization of launch opportunities on short notice. PocketQube is similar to CubeSat in this regard.

The standard was first proposed by Professor Bob Twiggs of Morehead State University, and the intention was for a satellite which could fit in a pocket, hence the name PocketQube.

Workshops

The first US workshop was held at NASA Ames and at Cape Canaveral in April 2014. There was a three-year gap until the next PocketQube workshop was held at TU Delft in The Netherlands in March 2017. The third workshop took place also at TU Delft in March 2018, with 22 presentations and 70 attendees. This is now an annual event for the PocketQube development community. In 2023 it was rebranded to the PocketQube conference to reflect the growth in the PocketQube community. It is held annually at the Glasgow University Union (GUU), in Glasgow, Scotland.

Launched

Listed in ascending order by launch date.

– Indicates low altitude launch.

Orbital No	Name	Type	Organisation	Mission	Launch Date (UTC)	Rocket	Status	Broker	Decay date
1	Beakersat-1[a]	2.5p	Morehead State University, Sonoma State University	Teaching Tool	2013-11-21, 07:11	Dnepr	No longer in orbit	GAUSS	Decay: 2019-2-13[6]
2	$50Sat (Eagle-2) Archived 2015-10-08 at the Wayback Machine	1.5p	Amateur Group	Amateur Mission			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2018-5-18[7]
3	QubeScout-S1	2.5p	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	Sensor/dynamic attitude experiments			In orbit
4	WREN	1p	Stadoko UG	Tech demo, Camera SSTV, 3 Axis Reaction Wheel and pp Thrusters			In orbit
	Astria	5p	BCIT Satellite Launch Program	Test structural feasibility at 30,000 feet for new design	2018-6-21[8]	UBC Black Tusk[9]	Launch failure[10]	UBC	Suborbital: 2018-6-21
	TQube	1p	Amateur	Insulation testing and recording of structural dynamics	2019-10-11, 18:37	Neutron	Success	TQube	Suborbital: 2019-10-11
5	SMOG-P	1p	Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary	Measurement of the radio spectrum in the UHF TV band	2019-12-6, 08:18	Electron	No longer in orbit	Alba Orbital	Decay: 2020-09-28[11]
6	ATL-1	2p	Advanced Technology of Laser	Test a new thermal isolation material in space			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2020-10-9[12]
7	FossaSat-1	1p	Fossa Systems	LoRa Demonstration & Deployable solar panels.			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2020-10-28[13]
8	Noor 1a (Unicorn-2b)	3p	Stara Space	Experimental			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2020-12-29[14]
9	Noor 1b (Unicorn-2c)	3p	Stara Space	Experimental			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2020-04-7[15]
10	TRSI	1p	TRSI Club	Amateur, testing novel receiver			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2020-10-13[16]
11	DIY-1 / ARDUIQUBE	1p	DIYSATELLITE	Technology Demonstrator	2021-3-22, 06:07:12	Soyuz-2.1a / Fregat	In orbit	GAUSS
12	STECCO	6p	School of Aerospace Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome	Laser Ranging			In orbit
13	SMOG-1	1p	Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary	Measurement of the radio spectrum in the UHF TV band			In orbit
	MDQube SAT-1 prototype	1.25p	Innova Space	Technology demonstration	2021-6-11	Aventura I-e2	Success	TLON Space	Suborbital: 2021-6-11
14	GENESIS N	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur Radio / Thruster Experiment	2021-9-3, 01:59	Alpha	Launch failure	FOSSA System / Libre Space Foundation	Suborbital: 2021-9-3[b]
15	GENESIS L	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur Radio / Thruster Experiment			Launch failure
16	QUBIK 1	1p	Libre Space Foundation	Amateur Radio[17] / Technology Demonstrator			Launch failure
17	QUBIK 2	1p	Libre Space Foundation	Amateur Radio[17] / Technology Demonstrator			Launch failure
18	FOSSASAT 1b	1p	Fossa Systems	LoRa Demonstration			Launch failure
19	FOSSASAT 2	2p	Fossa Systems	LoRa Demonstration			Launch failure
20	Unicorn 1	2p	Alba Orbital	Inter-sat link	2022-1-13, 15:25	Falcon 9	In orbit	Alba Orbital / Exolaunch
21	Unicorn 2A	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation			In orbit
22	Unicorn 2D	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation			In orbit
23	Unicorn 2E	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation			In orbit
24	Unicorn 2TA1	1p	Carnegie Mellon University	Earth observation			In orbit
25	Delfi-PQ	3p	Delft University of Technology	IoT			In orbit
26	Hades	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur radio			In orbit
27	EASAT-2	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur radio / Science			In orbit
28	Sattla-2A	2p	Ariel University	Education			In orbit
29	Sattla-2B	2p	Ariel University	Education			In orbit
30	PION-BR1	1p	PION Labs	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit
31	MDQube-SAT1	2p	Innova Space	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit
32	Grizu-263a	1p	Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit
33	Challenger	3p	Quub / Intuidex	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit	FOSSA Systems / Exolaunch
34	SanoSat-1	1p	Orion Space	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit
35	WISeSAT-1 (FOSSASAT-2E1)	2p	WISeKey	IoT			In orbit
36	WISeSAT-2 (FOSSASAT-2E2)	2p	WISeKey	IoT			In orbit
37	CShark Pilot 1 (FOSSASAT-2E3)	2p	CShark	IoT			In orbit
38	Laika (FOSSASAT-2E4)	2p	Porkchop	Technology Demonstrator			In orbit
39	FOSSASAT-2E5	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT			In orbit
40	FOSSASAT-2E6	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT			In orbit
41	Unicorn-2F	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation	2022-5-2, 22:49	Electron	In orbit	Alba Orbital
42	TRSI-2	1p	TRSI Club	Amateur radio			In orbit
43	TRSI-3	1p	TRSI Club	Amateur radio			In orbit
44	MyRadar-1	1p	ACME AtronOmatic	Experimental			In orbit
45	FOSSASAT-2E7	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration	2022-5-25, 18:35	Falcon 9	In orbit	FOSSA Systems / Momentus
46	FOSSASAT-2E8	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			In orbit
47	FOSSASAT-2E9	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			Deployment failure
48	FOSSASAT-2E10	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			Deployment failure
49	FOSSASAT-2E11	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			In orbit
50	FOSSASAT-2E12	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			In orbit
51	FOSSASAT-2E13	2p	FOSSA Systems	IoT / Earth Exploration			In orbit
52	Canary Hatchling	1p	CareWeather	Demonstrator			In orbit
53	FOSSASAT-1B	1p	FOSSA Systems	IoT	2022-10-1, 07:01	Alpha	No longer in orbit	Libre Space Foundation	Decay: 2022-10-3
54	GENESIS-G/ASTROLAND-1	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur Radio			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2022-10-3
55	GENESIS-J/ASTROLAND-2	1.5p	AMSAT EA	Amateur Radio			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2022-10-3
56	QUBIK-3	1p	Libre Space Foundation	Amateur Radio[18] / Technology Demonstrator			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2022-10-3
57	QUBIK-4	1p	Libre Space Foundation	Amateur Radio[18] / Technology Demonstrator			No longer in orbit		Decay: 2022-10-3
58	Unicorn-2G	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation	2023-1-3 14:56	Falcon 9	Transfer stage failure	Launcher
59	Unicorn-2H	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation			Transfer stage failure
60	URESAT	1.5p	AMSAT EA / URE	Amateur radio	12 June 2023 21:35	Falcon 9	In orbit	Alba Orbital
61	MRC-100 (formerly SMOG-2)	3p	Budapest University of Technology and Economics	Radio spectrum measurement, technology demonstration			In orbit
62	ROM-2	1p	International Computer High School of Bucharest	Earth observation			In orbit
63	Unicorn-2I	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth observation			In orbit
64	Satlla-2I	2p	Ariel University	Education			In orbit
65	Istanbul	1p	Hello Space	IoT			In orbit
66	TinySat*	1p	Stratonavtika	Earth Observation	27 June 2023 11:34:49	Soyuz-2.1b / Fregat	In orbit	Stratonavtika
67	TinySat*	1p					In orbit
68	TinySat*	1p					In orbit
69	TinySat*	1p					In orbit
70	TinySat*	2p					In orbit
71	TinySat*	2p					In orbit
72	HADES-D	1.5p	AMSAT EA / Hydra Space	Amateur radio / Platform testing	11 November 2023	Falcon 9	In Orbit	Alba Orbital
73	ROM-3	1.5p	FRR	EO			In Orbit
74	SpaceANT-D	1p	SpaceIn	IOT			In Orbit
75	U2 Tartan Artibeus-2	1p	Alba Orbital/CMU	Tech Demo			In Orbit
76	Unicorn-2J	3p	Alba Orbital	EO			In Orbit
77	Unicorn-2K	3p	Alba Orbital	EO			In Orbit
78	Hello Test 1	2p	Hello Space	IOT			In Orbit	Momentus
79	Hello Test 2	2p	Hello Space	IOT			In Orbit
80	MDQubesat-2	2p	Innova Space	IOT	1 December 2023	Falcon 9	In Orbit	Alba Orbital
81	Unicorn-2L	3p	Alba Orbital	EO			In Orbit
82	Unicorn-2M	3p	Alba Orbital	EO			In Orbit
83	Unicorn-2N	3p	Alba Orbital	EO			In Orbit
84	GENESIS-A	1.5p	AMSAT EA / Hydra Space	Amateur radio	9 July 2024	Ariane 6	In Orbit	ESA
85	Skylink-1	3p	Hello Space	IOT	14 January 2025	Falcon 9	In Orbit	Alba Orbital
86	Skylink-2	3p	Hello Space	IOT			In Orbit
87	HYPE	1p	AGH University	Selfie			In Orbit
88	PROMETHEUS-1	1p	Minho University	Education			In Orbit
89	Poquito	1p	University of Luxembourg	Tech Demo			In Orbit
90	Hades-R	1.5p	Hydra Space	Tech Demo			In Orbit
91	Hades-T	1.5p	Hydra Space	IOT			In Orbit
92	Unicorn-2O	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth Observation	14th of March 2025	Falcon 9	InOrbit	Alba Orbital
93	Unicorn-2P	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth Observation
94	Unicorn-2Q	3p	Alba Orbital	Earth Observation
95	Hades-ICM	1.5p	HYDRA SPACE / IC MERCURY / SMART IR	Voice transponder, tech demo
96	Hydra-W	1.5p	Hydra Space	IOT / Tech Demo

• * Tinysat do not follow the currently recognized PocketQube Mechanical standard as they deploy from a cubesat with a rail interface and not from a dedicated MR-Fod style PocketQube deployer on a tabbed baseplate (which all other orbital pocketqubes on the list have used). This makes them a variant of the PocketQube standard.

In development

Name	Type	Organisation	Mission	Launch Date (UTC)	Rocket	Broker	Status	Remarks
Delfi-Twins	3p x2	Tu Delft	Technology Demonstrator & Education	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development	Formation Flying & Drag Adjustable Wings
TigerCub	1p	Princeton	Education	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development
NMHH-1 (Hunity)	3p	BME	Technology Demonstrator	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development	Advanced 3P
SARI-01	1p	Ideia Space/ Saudi Space Agency	Education	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development
SARI-02	1p	Ideia Space/ Saudi Space Agency	Education	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development
ANISCSAT	1p	Azercomos	Education	TBC	TBC	Alba Orbital	In development
GalaxySat-1	1p	Ideia Space / Galaxy Explorer	Technology Demonstrator + South Atlantic Anomaly	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	Scientific PocketQube 1P
AQUIS	2p	Space Team Aachen	Technology Demonstrator	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	The satellite will contain an in-house developed propulsion system
Orbital Temple	1p	Ideia Space / Edson Pavoni	Art	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	Edson Pavoni talks about the Orbital Temple, the first PocketQube with artistic goals
OzQube-1[permanent dead link]	1p	Picosat Systems	Earth Observation	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	Team Interview
Discovery 1a	1p	Quub, Inc.	Camera / Photo Sat	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	Windform XT 2.0 based PocketQube testing of the shelf components for space use
UoMBSat1 Archived 2017-03-13 at the Wayback Machine	1p	University of Malta + University of Birmingham	Technology Demonstrator + Ionospheric Sounder	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	ASTREA Website @ UoM Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine SERENE Website @ UoB
APRS PocketQube	1p	National Chiao-Tung University	APRS PocketQube for Moving Objects Tracking	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development
UBO	1p	Satellite Applications Catapult	Outreach	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	http://buildubo.co.uk/build/ Archived 2019-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
Myansat-1	1p	Independent	Outreach	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://web.archive.org/web/20190115020853/http://myansat.com/
TFTQube	1p	The Flame Trench	Amateur	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://theflametrench.com/flagship/
TBC	TBC	University of Zacatecas	STEM	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://www.research"ate.net/project/Design-and-Implementation-of-a-PocketQube-system-for-educative-purposes Archived 2013-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
LibertyQube-1	1p	Liberty Life LLc	Experimental	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://www.libertylife-llc.com/
SatDuino	1p	Technical School N° 5 of Mar Del Plata	Education	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://satduinot5t1.wixsite.com/satduino
BYqube-1	1p	Brigham Young University	Education	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development
Pycubed-1	1p	Stanford University	Education	TBD		Alba Orbital	In development
DynOSSAT-EDU	1p	BHDynamics		TBC	TBC	TBC	In development
BS-0	1p	Aerozono Space Technologies (Argentina)	Earth Observation/ Technology Demonstrator	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://aerozono_space.gitlab.io/aerozono-space
BeliefSat-1	2p	K. J. Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology	Educational mission demonstrating PocketQube technologies	TBC	TBC	TBC	In development	https://github.com/NewLeapKjsieit/BeliefSat
TQube-FO	1p	TQube	Amateur tracking	TBD	TBD	TBD	In development
Leopard-Sat 1	1p	Wentworth Institute of Technology	Experimental mission demonstrating the use of two cameras onboard	TBD	TBD	TBD	In development	https://www.notion.so/picosat/Wentworth-PicoSat-a2947a5c33a04c8d9a6e7d9849fd3605
GOAT-1	1p	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Education	TBD	TBD	TBD	In development
RojavaSat	1p	Kurdistan Space Research Agency (KSRA)	Educational Pioneering Satellite Initiative & Localized Weather and Climate Data	TBC	TBC	KSRA	In development

PocketQube vs PocketQub

The PocketQube standard originally started as PocketQub.^[19] This was changed in 2012 by Professor Bob Twiggs of Morehead State University. The standard is now referred to as PocketQube.

Launch

As of December 2019, the only launch brokers capable of providing launch integration for PocketQube satellites are Fossa Systems, Libre Space Foundation, Alba Orbital and GAUSS Srl.

See also

• CubeSat

Notes

1. Also known as T-LogoQube, MagPocketQube, Eagle-1
2. Intended to reach orbit. Launch vehicle failed while under first stage flight on a suborbital trajectory.