Engineering:BlackCAT
From HandWiki
| Mission type | Space telescope (Astrophysics) |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| Mission duration | 14 months (planned) 1 month, 23 days (in progress) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Penn State |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 11 January 2026, 13:44:50 UTC |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 (booster 1097) |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Dawn/dusk sun-synchronous orbit |
| Altitude | 500 to 600 km |
BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) is a small X-ray astronomy space telescope in the form of a 6U CubeSat developed by NASA and Penn State.[1][2][3] Its objective is to observe gamma ray bursts, counterparts to multi-messenger events, and other high energy transient astronomical events.[4][5][6][7] The spacecraft launched on 11 January 2026 on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission "Twilight" together with two other astronomy mission by NASA: Pandora and SPARCS.[8][9][10][11][12][13] The spacecraft is expected to undergo two months of in-orbit commissioning followed by a one year science mission. Its orbital lifetime is expected to be approximately 10 years.[14]
References
- ↑ "Current Projects – The Falcone Group". https://sites.psu.edu/headilab/current-projects/.
- ↑ "Research Portal". https://laro.lanl.gov/esploro/outputs/conferenceProceeding/Current-status-of-the-BlackCAT-CubeSat/9916500748503761.
- ↑ Kulu, Erik. "BlackCAT" (in en). https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/blackcat.html.
- ↑ Tomaswick, Andy (2025-01-07). "A CubeSat Mission Will Detect X-rays from GRBs and Black-Hole Mergers" (in en). https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-cubesat-mission-will-detect-x-rays-from-grbs-and-black-hole-mergers.
- ↑ Colosimo, Joseph; Falcone, Abraham; Team, The BlackCAT (2025). "The BlackCAT CubeSat Wide-Field X-Ray Transient Monitor" (in en). American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #245 245: 144.01D. Bibcode: 2025AAS...24514401C. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025AAS...24514401C/abstract.
- ↑ Falcone, Abraham D.; Wages, Mitchell J.; Colosimo, Joseph M.; Ashcroft, Ian T.; Betts, Michael; Bevidas, William A.; Bortree, Brynn; Burrows, David N. et al. (2025). "The BlackCAT CubeSat: a soft x-ray coded aperture telescope". Proceedings Volume 13625, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXIV: 14. doi:10.1117/12.3065703. ISBN 978-1-5106-9158-2. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13625/136250E/The-BlackCAT-CubeSat--a-soft-x-ray-coded-aperture/10.1117/12.3065703.short.
- ↑ Falcone, Abraham D.; Colosimo, Joseph M.; Wages, Mitchell; Betts, Michael; Bevidas, William A.; Bortree, Brynn; Buffington, Jacob C.; Burrows, David N. et al. (2024-08-21). "BlackCAT: An upcoming soft x-ray coded aperture telescope on a 6U CubeSat". in Den Herder, Jan-Willem A.; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro; Nikzad, Shouleh. Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Yokohama, Japan: SPIE. pp. 91. doi:10.1117/12.3020370. ISBN 978-1-5106-7509-4. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13093/3020370/BlackCAT--an-upcoming-soft-x-ray-coded-aperture-telescope/10.1117/12.3020370.full.
- ↑ "NASA's Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond - NASA Science" (in en-US). 2026-01-09. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/nasas-pandora-satellite-cubesats-to-explore-exoplanets-beyond/.
- ↑ "A cereal-box-sized space telescope heads for the stars | ASU News" (in en). 2026-01-08. https://news.asu.edu/20260108-science-and-technology-asu-built-cubesat-sparcs-spacex-launch-weekend.
- ↑ Davenport, Justin (2026-01-11). "SpaceX's Twilight rideshare mission set to fly from Vandenberg" (in en-US). https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/01/spacexs-twilight-rideshare-mission-vandenberg/.
- ↑ "Twilight (Pandora & Others) | Falcon 9 Block 5 | Next Spaceflight" (in en). https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/8026/.
- ↑ Foust, Jeff (2026-01-11). "NASA astrophysics, commercial satellites launch on SpaceX rideshare mission" (in en-US). SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/nasa-astrophysics-commercial-satellites-launch-on-spacex-rideshare-mission/.
- ↑ Luciani 0, Massimo (2026-01-11). "A success for the launch of NASA's Pandora, BlackCAT, and SPARCS astronomical missions" (in en-US). https://english.tachyonbeam.com/2026/01/11/a-success-for-the-launch-of-nasas-pandora-blackcat-and-sparcs-astronomical-missions/.
- ↑ Colosimo, Joseph M.; Fox, Derek B.; Falcone, Abraham D.; Palmer, David M.; Hancock, Frederic; Betts, Michael; Bevidas, William A.; Buffington, Jacob C. et al. (2024-10-01). "Expected Gamma-Ray Burst Detection Rates and Redshift Distributions for the BlackCAT CubeSat Mission". The Astrophysical Journal 969 (2): 138. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad4f8b. Bibcode: 2024ApJ...969..138C.
External links
- "Two New CubeSats to Monitor Nearby Stars and Distant Black Holes - Sky & Telescope". 13 January 2026. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/two-new-cubesats-to-monitor-nearby-stars-and-distant-black-holes/.
Template:Orbital launches in 2026
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