Think of the International Space Station, and most likely you imagine an orbiting laboratory, where scientists observe how plants, materials, and humans react to microgravity conditions. But during the past decade, the station has also served a very different role—that of being a business incubator. And this is one of its star products—the CubeSat. The CubeSat is one of many types of satellites now found in space. It is one of the smallest; one "unit" is a compact 10 by 10 by 10cm cube and is commonly referred to as 1U. And it can be deployed for a fraction of what its larger cousins cost. Early small satellites launched from the station were literally thrown into space by Russian cosmonauts! In 2012, crewmembers began utilizing the airlock in the Japanese Kibo module to deploy up to 6U of CubeSats per airlock cycle. And not long after, the American company Nanoracks built and began operating an even more robust deployer on the station, capable of launching up to 48U pe
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