The best way to contact us is through email at info@cubecab.com though you may find answers to your questions below.
The best way to contact us is through email at info@cubecab.com though you may find answers to your questions below.
We are still researching and developing our various projects including our launch service. Check out our Projects page for more information.
It is too early to promise a launch date, or for us to sell individual launch tickets. As with any project, we need to make the prototypes, test, and license them before any launches can take place. Because of this, some estimate that our first launch will cost millions of dollars, while the next several will cost mere thousands each. Once our launch vehicle is in operation, then we plan to perform rapid cadence launches.
Please see our "Why CubeSats?" page for more information. We do have plans to scale up once the 3U launcher is in operation, but our business projections consistently show that starting with a size that already has a large unmet commercial demand will help keep CubeCab economically sound while we develop larger launchers.
Meanwhile, there are other launch companies serving larger payload sizes. The need for much larger launch services is not as great.
By offering dedicated launch service, at sizes where what is important is not the cost per kilogram, but the size of the check someone has to write to get the launch to happen. A rocket that costs millions of dollars to launch is not right-sized for launching individual CubeSats.
Yes. That is an important point of CubeSats: anyone can own and operate one, if you can get it launched.
To get a CubeSat launched, you will have to get appropriate licensing before it can launch. For instance, if you are in the U.S. and your satellite will use radio (as most do for telemetry), you must get a license from the FCC. www.fcc.gov/space/space-stations has an overview of the process. You will also need a license for the ground side of communications; a standard amateur ("ham") radio license may suffice, and obtaining one is a good starting point if you are completely new to the field. www.arrl.org/getting-licensed is one place to start. If you are not in the U.S., look up your country's regulations; international treaties mean that basically all countries have some sort of licensing process for this.
We have some designs for specific CubeSats, but no, we do not build, manufacture, or help customers make CubeSats for launch. We can point customers to resources such as www.cubesat.org for the specifications. There are many easy to assemble kits for 3U CubeSats available online.
The U.S. has laws against sharing technical data on certain subjects with non-U.S. citizens. Fortunately, the CubeSat standard was set up to be exempt from these laws.
The CubeSat standard almost completely forbids interface between the satellite and the launch vehicle, save for certain buttons detailed in the standard that tell the satellite when it has been released. So if you are making a CubeSat, you do not need technical data from us about the launch vehicle. (The launch environment, such as expected G loads, is another story.)
If you want us to launch your satellite, there will probably be a government review to make sure your payload is safe and would not interfere with other satellites.
No. Orbital debris is a real problem, but there is plenty of space up there, especially if you can choose your own orbit instead of ridesharing with a bunch of other satellites all released to the same orbit and competing for space in a narrow band around the earth.
To quote Douglas Adams, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." There are many pictures claiming to show orbital debris with a lot of dots around the Earth, but they imply the problem is much more dire than it presently is, as if adding just one more satellite would immediately shatter everything in orbit. It is akin to zooming out on a mapping application, so that each dot pointing out an individual grocery store appears to cover an entire town. At the scale of those pictures, one pixel (the smallest dot they can show) generally covers an area of many square kilometers, which is much larger than the cross section of most satellites, yet a dot might represent just one satellite, or in some of those pictures, an individual scrap much smaller than a CubeSat. There is ample room for further satellites, particularly CubeSats at low altitudes.
First, most if not all CubeSats right now are launched via rideshare - like taking a bus to orbit - and dumped out along the same orbital path. CubeCab's launchers are focusing instead on one 3U CubeSat payload injected into its own orbit - like taking a cab to orbit - so you can pick an orbital path away from other satellites and reduce the risk of collision.
Second, our current launch vehicles plan to launch to an orbit around 400 km. At that altitude, even if a satellite is dead on arrival to orbit or explodes into scrap, it naturally de-orbits and would burn up on reentry into the atmosphere. Orbital debris is much more of a concern at higher altitudes where most launches have centered. Customers who wish access to higher orbits are advised to equip their satellites with in-space propulsion such as ion engines, which also lets them dodge orbital debris. It would also be more expensive for us to directly inject them into higher orbits, than the combination of using our service to get to 400 km and having an ion engine on their satellite to go the rest of the way.
This is a question for the individual missions from our future customers. We focus on launching for a demand. Our research has found that this demand for CubeSat launches is fueled by academics, individuals, companies, and governments who all have different reasons for wanting a launch: see our Why CubeSats? page. Launch missions can range from being focused on improving life on earth, studying the effects of space, monitoring weather patterns on earth, and even mere novelty of having something in space. Whatever the reason, if people are willing to spend money on launching, we are a private company who would like to help fulfill that need and get paid for doing so.