HuskySat-1 is an artificial satellite designed at the University of Washington. It was launched by Cygnus NG-12 from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Launch Pad 0 on Wallops Island, Virginia to low earth orbit on November 2, 2019. It is a CubeSat, and will demonstrate onboard plasma propulsion and high gain telemetry for low Earth orbit that would be a precursor for an attempt at a larger CubeSat designed for orbital insertion at the Moon.[1]
The satellite was designed by Husky Satellite Lab, a registered student group, in Johnson Hall, and was controlled from there using three antennae installed on the roof.[2][3]
The satellite will test an experimental 24 GHz data transmitter, after which it will become an amateur radio satellite operated by AMSAT.[6] The high data rate will enable much more data to be transferred during the 9- to 15-minute time windows the satellite is visible from the control station.[2]
HuskySat is the first satellite designed by students in Washington state.[5]
The satellite decayed from orbit on 12 April 2023.[7]
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).