United Nations/Japan Cooperation Programme on CubeSat Deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module "KiboCUBE"
News
- UNOOSA and JAXA announced the 8th round awardee on 30 July 2024, read the press release
- Read the Access to Space for All initiative for Sustainability: Interview Series Article #7 "KiboCUBE: Bringing 'Hope' to Countries with a Small Satellite
- For educational contents on small satellite development, check out KiboCUBE Academy
- Check out the brochure: "KiboCUBE: Expanding Possibilities for Space Emerging Countries"
Rounds
The United Nations/Japan Cooperation Programme on CubeSat Deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) "KiboCUBE" is a programme of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The programme started in 2015. KiboCUBE is the dedicated collaboration for utilizing the ISS Kibo for the world. KiboCUBE aims to provide educational or research institutions from developing countries of United Nations membership with opportunities to deploy, from the ISS Kibo, cube satellites (CubeSats) which they develop and manufacture. The deployment of CubeSats from ISS is easier than the direct deployment by a launch vehicle thanks to the lower vibration environment during launch. With these comparatively less demanding interface requirements, UNOOSA and JAXA believe that KiboCUBE will lower the threshold of space activities and will contribute to building national capacity in spacecraft engineering, design and construction.
read moreAwardees
1st Round: University of Nairobi (Kenya)
2nd Round: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (Guatemala)
3rd Round: Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (Mauritius) and Surya University (Indonesia)
4th Round: Technical University of Moldova (Moldova)
5th Round: Central American Integration System (SICA)
6th Round: Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla (Mexico) and Ecole Superieure Privee d'Ingenierie et de Technologie Appliquee (Tunisia)
8th Round: Joint team from Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (Tanzania) and Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët Boigny (Côte d'Ivoire)
Partner
This opportunity is in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the national space agency of Japan. Currently, the only module to deploy CubeSats from the ISS is Kibo, developed by JAXA. Kibo's unique capability is comprised of an airlock system and a robotic arm. The first orbital deployment of CubeSats from Kibo was successfully conducted in October 2012 through the Small Satellite Orbital Deployer developed by JAXA. Since then, nano-satellites and CubeSats from various countries around the world have been deployed from Kibo.
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