First CubeSat from Brazil

A small satellite named AESP-14 developed by Brazilian institution was put into orbit by the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) of the Kibo module on February 5, 2015. AESP-14, the first CubeSat developed in Brazil, by researcher and engineers from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica: ITA) and the National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais: INPE). AESP-14 has an onboard experiment which transmits 437.6MHz amateur radio band. The project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Pedro Teixeira Lacava of ITA, and three team engineers watched the deployment at the control room in Tsukuba Space Center of JAXA.

J-SSOD is the mechanism developed by JAXA to deploy small satellites based on the CubeSat standard (10cm X 10cm X 10cm) through the airlock of Kibo. JAXA is piloting an onerous contract procedure to provide opportunities for small satellite deployment with J-SSOD. AESP-14 was launched utilizing this procedure mediated by Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation (JAMSS).

This procedure opens the door to Kibo utilization for non-ISS partners, and is beneficial especially for countries in the Asia-Pacific region.