Dellingr: the little CubeSat that could

Zipping through the sky 250 miles up is a shoebox-sized bundle of detectors and electronics named Dellingr. The namesake of the mythological Norse god of the dawn, Dellingr is among a new breed of spacecraft known as a CubeSat. These small satellites, measured in standardized 10-by-10-by-10 cubic centimeter units, weigh no more than a few pounds—bearing little resemblance to the larger, van-sized spacecraft such as the Hubble Telescope for which NASA is known. But SmallSats—which encompass a wide range of sizes, including CubeSats—are an increasingly valuable tool in the space scientist’s arsenal.