The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder is participating in three upcoming CubeSat missions—COSMO, AEPEX, and CANVAS—that are scheduled to launch in late March and early April. All three missions are led by CU’s Smead Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Robert Marshall, whose mission teams span LASP, Aerospace, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)—including more than 60 students—reflecting strong cross‑campus partnerships that will continue through launch and operations.
Each mission has a unique scientific focus:
COSMO, the COmpact Spaceborne Magnetic Observatory, will collect high‑resolution magnetic field data to support geophysical and space‑weather research. COSMO is CU Boulder’s entry into the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency MagQuest Competition and funded by CU Boulder’s Grand Challenge initiative.
AEPEX—the Atmospheric Effects of Precipitation through Energetic X-rays mission—will study how energetic electrons from the Van Allen radiation belts enter Earth’s atmosphere, a process with implications for the ozone balance and satellite communications. AEPEX co-investigators include LASP scientists Tom Woods, Cora Randall, and Dan Baker.
CANVAS, the Climatology of Anthropogenic and Natural VLF wave Activity in Space mission, will measure the power and directionality of very low frequency energy from lightning strikes. CANVAS includes two instruments: a magnetometer and an AC electric field sensor on which David Malaspina, a LASP researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, is the co‑investigator.
LASP’s SmallSat Mission Operations Team, which is led by Sierra Flynn and involves many CU Boulder students, has been central to efforts to prepare the three spacecraft for the upcoming and nearly back‑to‑back launches. The team’s work has ranged from final spacecraft health checkouts to configuration updates, with graduate students taking the lead to make sure each satellite is fully prepared for integration and flight, Flynn said.
That effort has meant teaming up with IT, Data Systems, Ops Software, Science groups, CU collaborators, and the Ground Station Engineer to make sure “every link in the chain—from science data in space to scientists on the ground—is ready to go,” she said. Students are involved in every step of the mission, from helping write and set up the command-and-control software that allows the operations center to monitor the satellites and send them commands, to working with flight directors to create the plans that guide the mission’s first weeks of activity in space.
“Working on CANVAS and COSMO has been the most rewarding opportunity I’ve had the privilege to be a part of,” said CU/LASP engineering management and aerospace engineering graduate student Rithik Gangopadhyay, who served as the team’s graduate operations lead. “All those long nights, tireless bug fixes, and quick turnarounds will all be worth it once CANVAS and COSMO speak to us from space.”
COSMO and AEPEX are scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter 16, a dedicated SmallSat rideshare mission aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, from Vandenberg Space Force Base no earlier than March 30. CANVAS is expected to launch on April 7 on U.S. Space Force Space STP-S29A, aboard a Minotaur IV rocket also from Vandenberg SFB.
When launch day arrives, the team will gather in LASP’s Mission Operations Center waiting for that first satellite pass over Boulder, which usually happens within about 12 hours of launch. Those first signals are critical. “If we see real‑time data from the spacecraft, we can be pretty sure that the solar arrays and UHF antenna have deployed,” she said, “which is probably the scariest part about these missions since there is no redundancy.”
Once contact is made, the team will jump into action: handling command and data systems, checking attitude control, monitoring temperatures and power, and, finally, turning on the science instruments for commissioning. If everything goes smoothly, commissioning should be completed in about three weeks. After that, the missions will settle into steady‑state operations, with LASP’s SmallSat Mission Operations Team continuing to play a major role, including the students.
“The work I’ve done as part of the Mission Operations team at LASP has prepared me with an exceptional understanding of the entire process of developing a mission from the proposal phase all the way to decommissioning,” said Gangopadhyay. That’s “an experience no other place could have possibly given me at this stage of my career.”
By Sara Pratt, LASP Sr. Communications Specialist
LASP is a national leader in small satellites, with an industry-leading 100% return on science from more than 20 SmallSat missions encompassing heliophysics, astrophysics, and Earth science. We are training the next generation of space scientists and engineers, with students working alongside professional staff through every mission phase. LASP’s full-cycle capabilities—from concept through scientific analysis—enable fast, flexible development, making LASP a trusted mission partner for SmallSat science.
