Waratah Seed-1 is Australia's first commercial ride-share satellite mission, launched on 16 August 2024 via SpaceX's Transporter-11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Developed by the Waratah Seed Consortium - led by CUAVA at the University of Sydney and supported by the NSW Government - the 6U CubeSat aimed to provide spaceflight qualification opportunities for New South Wales startups and research institutions. Carrying nine payloads from five startups and three universities, including technologies like perovskite solar cells, edge computing, electrical-permanent magnetorquers and biodegradable testing materials, the mission successfully demonstrated the functionality of these innovations in orbit. Eight of the nine payloads were fully commissioned and performed desired experiments/demonstrations, with data received at ground stations, and the satellite remained operational for over 10 months. This mission not only validated emerging Australian space technologies but also fostered collaboration across academia, industry, and government, marking a significant milestone in the nation's space capabilities.

CroCube, launched on December 21, 2024 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (Bandwagon-2), is Croatia’s first satellite led by a young team of engineers and students. Owned and operated by a non-profit organization, this 1U CubeSat marks a step toward the country’s independent space capability. The modular platform enabled rapid subsystem integration and flexible payload deployment. A key innovation lies in its modular Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS), developed atop a flight-proven onboard computer (OBC) and standalone GNSS receiver. Instead of developing the whole solution, the team engineered a compact motherboard that integrates magnetorquers, sensors, and driving circuits—showing both efficiency and adaptability. The same OBC type also controls the satellite’s primary camera, demonstrating the platform’s modularity. A standout example of this adaptability is the late-stage addition of Astrotron1000, an experimental payload developed by Croatian company PulsarLabs. Developed just few months before final assembly, it replaced a previous payload with no need for structural or electrical changes. Astrotron1000 compares light sensors in orbit and implements a novel voting mechanism between three onboard microcontrollers to validate sensor data, showcasing both technical ambition and platform flexibility.

Mission goals included successful launch and deployment, verification of all subsystems, public engagement, and payload operations. All primary goals have been achieved: the satellite is fully operational, beaconing regularly, downlinking telemetry, and performing in-orbit testing of both the modular subsystems and Astrotron1000, the onboard camera is fully functional and has successfully transmitted images from orbit. The mission also succeeded in engaging the wider public and student community, inspiring new interest in STEM and space in Croatia and beyond.

The AEROS MH-1 nanosatellite is collecting a comprehensive set of data of the Atlantic Ocean across spatially distributed areas, spectral wavelengths and time. Now, we can better understand the ocean environment and critical variables in the Portuguese economic exclusive zone. While the AEROS MH-1 is just one satellite, it is a demonstration mission serving as a precursor to a future constellation focused on applying state-of-the-art techniques to measure and monitor the ocean. This project was funded by the MIT Portugal Partnership and designed by 12 different companies, institutes and universities. The work was developed with multinational “Atlantic Interactions” and research efforts. 

LICIACube, funded by the Italian Space Agency, was part of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, the first attempt to target, impact and move an asteroid in space, in September 2022. The smallsat was the only secondary mission aboard NASA DART and its objective was to document the impact between the DART probe and the asteroid Dimorphos. LICIACube is the first deep space smallsat to attempt such a mission.

Argotec’s Mission Control Center recorded LICIACube performing an asteroid fly-by at 4.35 miles per second, or more than 15,650 m.p.h., under fully autonomous navigation. The smallsat took 627 photos showing debris streaming from Dimorphos.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is a 25 kilogram (55-pound) 12U CubeSat developed for NASA that is the first spacecraft launched in support of our return to the Moon. CAPSTONE is owned and operated by Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado and designed and built by the Terran Orbital Corporation of Irvine, California. The spacecraft uses a monopropellant hydrazine-fueled propulsion system developed and implemented by Stellar Exploration Inc. of San Luis Obispo, California. The mission launched June 28 on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand. CAPSTONE will be the first spacecraft to pioneer a new and challenging lunar orbit called a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) that NASA has baselined for the Artemis Lunar Gateway architecture.

TechEdSat-10 (TES-10) is a research and technology demonstration spacecraft. Designed and built by: Partners from NOAA, US Universities and TES/NOW Team from NASA Ames deployed from the ISS on 14-July-2020. TechEdSat-10 was built by early-career engineers in less than a year. TES-10 achieved comprehensive success and re-entered on 15-March-2021, following a command to activate its Exobrake on 15-March-2021, 01:57 UTC. 

The Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) is a wide field-of-view imaging polarimeter instrument designed for accurate and comprehensive measurements of aerosol and cloud properties from space. The HARP instrument fits in a 1.5U volume, with microelectronics and telemetry optimized for a 3U CubeSat spacecraft. The HARP CubeSat mission is a NASA ESTO InVest project, with joint collaboration between the Earth and Space Institute at UMBC and the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) at Utah State University.

The HARP CubeSat simultaneously samples at 120 unique viewing angles, 4 visible wavelengths, and 3 unique polarization states. Using a combination of polarized information from three co-aligned CCD detectors, the HARP CubeSat produces geolocated, georegistered, gridded, and calibrated Stokes parameters I, Q, and U at narrow spatial resolutions. The polarization separation is done with a modified Phillips prism and wavelength selection via stripe-filter detectors: both advancements in tandem are the key to high polarization accuracy with no moving parts and miniaturization into a CubeSat payload.

Quetzal 1 is Guatemala's first satellite. The 1U CubeSat is being built at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG).

The mission is to evaluate and integrate the different systems that make up a CubeSat to develop in Guatemala the skills required for the operation of satellites, while remote sensing elements are validated, e.g. for monitoring cyanobacteria in Lake Atitlan, in future satellites.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have selected Guatesat 1 for the second round of the UNOOSA-JAXA KiboCUBE program. KiboCUBE is an initiative that offers educational and research institutions from developing countries the opportunity to deploy cube satellites (CubeSats) from the Kibo module of the International Space Station. Quetzal 1 was deployed on 28 April 2020 from the ISS.

The twin communications-relay CubeSats, built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, constitute a technology demonstration called Mars Cube One (MarCO). CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies. Many have been made by university students, and dozens have been launched into Earth orbit using extra payload mass available on launches of larger spacecraft.

MarCO-A and B are the first and second interplanetary CubeSats designed to monitor InSight for a short period around landing and to demonstration a potential future capability. The MarCO pair carried their own communications and navigation experiments as they flew independently to the Red Planet.

ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was a technology demonstration and opportunistic science mission to conduct astrophysical measurements using a CubeSat. ASTERIA was the first JPL-built CubeSat to have been successfully operated in space. Originally envisioned as a project for training early career scientists and engineers, ASTERIA's technical goal was to achieve arcsecond-level line-of-sight pointing error and highly stable focal plane temperature control. These technologies are important for precision photometry, i.e., the measurement of stellar brightness over time. Precision photometry, in turn, provides a way to study stellar activity, transiting exoplanets, and other astrophysical phenomena. 

Launched in December 2016, Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is a constellation of eight mapping microsatellites operated collaboratively by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of Michigan (UM). It aims to determine how  tropical cyclones form and evolve. 

Onboard each CYGNSS satellite is a single instrument, the Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI). Radio signals are sent from a higher altitude GPS satellite and reflected off the ocean to DDMI. The strength of this signal is indicative of the ocean surface wind speed which is calculated using the CYGNSS wind speed retrieval algorithm.
This data will help determine how tropical cyclones form and evolve, and hence cast more accurate predictions regarding these extreme weather events.

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat is a student project to design, build, integrate, test, and operate a 34 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm satellite. Specifically, the intensity of the soft x-ray solar spectrum from 0.4 keV (30 Å) to 30 keV (0.4 Å) is measured, with resolution of ~0.15 keV full-width half-max. This region is of particular interest for observations of solar flares and active regions. The MinXSS project heavily involves its graduate students with scientists and engineers at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Over 40 graduate students, 3 undergraduate students, and one high school student have worked on MinXSS.

LightSail® is a crowdfunded project from The Planetary Society to demonstrate that solar sailing is a viable means of propulsion for CubeSats — small, standardized spacecraft that are part of a global effort to lower the cost of space exploration. A preliminary technology demonstrator spacecraft, LightSail 1 was launched at 15:05 UTC on 20 May 2015. The mission delivered the satellite to an orbit where atmospheric drag was greater than the force exerted by solar radiation pressure.

Two days after the launch, however, the spacecraft suffered a software malfunction, which made it unable to deploy the solar sail or to communicate. On 31 May 2015, The Planetary Society reported having regained contact with LightSail 1. After the solar panels were deployed on 3 June 2015, communications with the spacecraft were lost once more on 4 June 2015. In this case, a fault with the battery system was suspected. Contact was then reestablished on 6 June 2015, and the sail deployment was initiated on 7 June 2015.

SkySat-1 and 2 are commercial Earth observation satellites by Skybox Imaging, licensed to collect high resolution panchromatic and multispectral images of the earth. The satellites operate in a polar inclined, circular orbit at approximately 450 km above the earth.

The first two satellite prototypes without propulsion were built by Skybox Imaging in house. The first satellite was launched in 2013 on a cluster launch on a Dnepr rocket. The second identical satellite was launched as a secondary payload on a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat launch in 2014.