Official name W-CUBE
Alternative name W-Cube
Cospar ID 2021-059CQ
Norad ID 48965
Launch date 2021-06-30
Launch site AFETR
Launch vehicle Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5)
Country/Organization Finland
Type application Technology, earth observation
Operator Reaktor Space Lab
RCS size SMALL
Decay date ON ORBIT
Period (min) 94.16
Inclination (deg) 97.64
Perigee (km) 472
Apogee (km) 484
Eccentricity 0.0125523012552301
Mean motion (revs. per day) 15.2931180968564
Semi-Major axis (km) 6856.135
Raan (deg) 270.0517
Arg of perigee (deg) 214.5532
Shape Box
Mass (kg) 5
Height (m) 0.3
Width (m) 0.1
Depth (m) 0.1
Span (m^2) 0.3
Contractors Reaktor Space Lab
Equipment W-band payload
Configuration CubeSat (3U)
Power Solar cells, batteries

W-Cube, developed by Reaktor Space Lab, is an ESA ARTES mission to study the propagation of extremely high frequency W-band radiowaves through the ionosphere and upper atmosphere.

The satellite carries two radio beacons and conducts measurements over the mission prime, Joanneum Research?s groundstation in Graz. The payload development has been led by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. The mission will demonstrate the feasibility of using new higher frequency bands for future telecom satellites which will offer more bandwidth and data rates to the user.

The satellite will be launched via the ION-SCV 003 deployer on a Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) in June 2021.

Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
W-CUBE 2021-059CQ 2021-06-30 AFETR Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5) with Starlink v1.5 R1-1, ..., R1-3, Umbra-SAR 2001, YAM 2, YAM 3, ÑuSat 19, ..., 22, ICEYE X11, X12, X13, X15, TUBIN, Mandrake 2A, 2B, Capella 5, GNOMES 2, LINCS 1, 2, PACE 1, TROPICS 01, D2/AtlaCom 1, EG 3, Centauri 4, Lemur-2 140, ..., 145, SpaceBEE 88, ..., 111, SpaceBEENZ 7, ..., 10, Sherpa-FX 2, Lynk 06, Hawk 3A, 3B, 3C, Astrocast 0201, ..., 0205, Painani 2, Sherpa-LTE 1, Tenzing, Aurora, Arthur 1, Faraday Phoenix, KSF 1A, ..., 1D, Tiger 2, ION-SCV 003, NAPA 2, Spartan, Neptuno, Ghalib, QMR-KWT