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10 April 2015

Space Launch System to Boost Science with Secondary Payloads

By Kimberly Newton 
Apr 08, 2015

When NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) launches on its first flight, it will be doing some serious multi-tasking. Not only will Exploration Mission-1 test the performance of SLS and its integration with the Orion spacecraft - the agency plans to use its massive lift capability to carry nearly a dozen nano-satellites to conduct science experiments beyond low Earth orbit.

NASA's newest rocket will launch Orion on an uncrewed test flight to a distant retrograde orbit around the moon. Tucked inside the stage adapter - the ring connecting Orion to the top propulsion stage of the SLS - will be 11 self-contained small satellites, each about the size of a large shoebox.

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