Preparing The NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer For Launch

NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio works to install the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer inside the Kibo laboratory module’s airlock.

After the airlock is depressurized, the Japanese robotic arm grapples the deployer and places it outside in the vacuum of microgravity pointing it away from the International Space Station.

CubeSats from private, governmental, and academic organizations are then deployed into Earth orbit for a variety of research objectives.

iss069e004397 (April 20, 2023) – Larger image