This document summarizes the NRO CubeSat Program, which uses small CubeSat satellites to support various R&D priorities like university outreach and technology maturation. The program provides a common Colony bus template for payloads and experiments. Colony buses are provided by companies like Pumpkin Inc and Boeing. The program has partnered with over 20 companies, government labs, and universities. Upcoming CubeSat launches include a 2010 SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission and a 2011 ORS Enabler rideshare mission. The goal is to make the Colony bus a standard commodity and help drive government acquisition of CubeSat capabilities.

1. Colony: A New Business Model for
R&D
The NRO CubeSat Program

2. Overview
Colony program to date
• Goals
• Vehicles
• Ground stations
• Upcoming launches
Path Forward
• Government Acquisition
• Economic arguments
• What can you do?

3. CubeSat Program
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Addresses multiple AS&T R&D priorities:
• Outreach:
Supports University Outreach
• Workforce Development:
Service Academy Outreach
• Technology Maturation:
Accelerate fielding of new technologies
Reduce tech insertion risk for NRO SPOs
Reduce Cost; Improve Manufacturability
KEY THRUSTS
Colony Bus:
• Provide template for customers with a payload or demonstration need
Space Experiments:
• Enable on-orbit demonstration capability through launch outreach
Accelerate new “Sources and Methods”; Demonstrate new foundational technologies
• Provide end-to-end systems operations outreach
Common (distributed) Ground Architecture

4. Colony Today
Bus Capabilities:
Colony I:
Bus Provider: Pumpkin Inc.,
San Francisco, CA
12 XS -25a buses
~$250,000 each
Features: flight processor, EPS, ADACS
AI&T done by P/L provider
Colony II:
Bus Provider: Boeing
20-50 buses over 3 years
~ $250,000 each
Features: flight processor, EPS with
70W peak power, ADACS,
TT&C Radio, AES 256-bit encryption
Example Mission Areas:
Technology Maturation
Space Weather
Environmental Monitoring

5. Colony Partners
23
24
1
2
21
6
8
18
11
20
16
15
13
14
7
19
26
10
22
As Of
19 March 2010
2
254
17
3
9
5
12
1 AFIT
2 AFRL
3 Andrews Space
4 BAE
5
Boeing
Phantom Works
6 Cal Poly
7
General
Dynamics
8 LANL
9 MIT
10
Naval Post
Graduate
11
Naval Research
Laboratory
12
Northrop
Grumman - STS
13
Operationally
Responsive
Space
14 Pumpkin Inc
15 QinetiQ
16
Sandia National
Laboratory
17 SET Corp.
18 Space-X
19 SRI International
20 Texas A&M
21
University of
Arizona
22
University of
Florida
23
University of
Southern
California
24
US Air Force
Academy
25
US Naval
Academy
26
Utah State
University
11 Companies, 4 Government Labs, 11 Universities

6. Prototype - Mobile CubeSat
Command & Control (MC3) Hardware
VPN

7. Falcon 9 NASA COTS C1- Rideshare
Rideshare on SpaceX second launch of Falcon 9 (Sep 2010):
• First demo of Dragon Module support to NASA
• Excess capacity in Dragon Trunk for secondary payloads
• 300 km circular; 34.5° inclination
5 P-PODs reserved for Government partners:
QbX – NRL; (3U x 2)
SMDC-1 – SMDC; (3U)
Perseus – LANL; (1.5U x 4)
P-POD

8. ORS Enabler Rideshare
ORS Led Team
• ORS/STP & NRO Rideshare
Planned Launch Date - Summer 2011
Notional Orbit: 500 km circular, 45° inclination
Kestrel Eye
ORS CubeSats:
TacSat 6 – SMDC (3U)
ORS Enabler Sat – (3U)
NASA AMES – (6U)
STP – (4 SV)
NRO CubeSats:
Colony (3U x 2)
AENEAS - USC (3U)
Environmental Monitoring – USU (3U)
Firefly – NASA/GSF & NSF (3U)
AeroCube 5 – The Aerospace Corp (1U)
CP5 – CalPoly & NASA KSC (1U)
SwampSat – U of Florida & NASA/KSC (1U)
Boeing IR&D – (3U x 2)
NRO
ORS/STP
SMDC
Kestrel Eye
Free Flyer

9. Shaping the Market
UNCLASSIFIED
Drive Mission Utility through USG coordination
• Make the bus a standard commodity (<$250K; low profit)
• Provide opportunity for bulk purchasing
• Allow developers to focus on payloads (mission)
Programs drive govt acquisition decisions
• Programs want ready solutions (especially small, fast programs that
are the market for CubeSats)
• The small, fast programs cannot afford large development costs for
small satellites
• Individual programs are not quantity buyers
• Operational uses require improvements in secure communications,
on-orbit lifetime, reliability, processing, and standard control
Govt
Industry

10. Conclusions
NRO actively pursuing CubeSats
• Multiple SV’s delivered
• Multiple mission areas
Extensive opportunity for collaborative programs
• Improvement of basic needed capabilities
• Mission payloads
• Launches