Space Station's Cubesat Launcher Has Mind of Its Own

[Grey Havoc]

ORIGINAL CAPTION: In the grasp of the Japanese robotic arm, NanoRack’s CubeSat deployer releases a pair of miniature satellites last month.
Credit: NASA

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Last week, two more of Planet Lab's shoebox-sized Earth imaging satellites launched themselves from aboard the International Space Station, the latest in a series of technical mysteries involving a commercially owned CubeSat deployer located outside Japan’s Kibo laboratory module.

Station commander Steve Swanson was storing some blood samples in one of the station’s freezers Friday morning when he noticed that the doors on NanoRack's cubesat deployer were open, said NASA mission commentator Pat Ryan.

"No crew members or ground controllers saw the deployment. They reviewed all the camera footage and there was no views of it there either," Ryan said.

http://www.space.com/27068-space-station-cubesat-launcher-mystery.html

 

[sferrin]

Skynet being sneaky.