Kentucky Space has partnered with NanoRacks LLC a Houston-based aerospace company that has signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA that provides a unique opportunity for NanoRacks to design, coordinate and conduct research on the International Space Station (ISS) for itself as well as on behalf of national educational and commercial clients.

The NanoRacks Research System interfaces standard CubeSat type modules into the International Space Station (ISS) Express Racks. Our CubeLab™ Platforms are small modules designed for use within a pressurized space station environment in orbit, with a nominal length, width, and height and a mass of 1 kg (extended CubeLabs™ are possible).

The first NanoRacks platform and the first two CubeLabs™ will fly aboard Shuttle mission STS-131 to the ISS. A second NanoRacks platform has been delivered to NASA for flight tests.

The NanoRacks team also enjoys the expertise of CubeSat inventor Bob Twiggs and former head of the Stanford University Space and Systems Development Laboratory "Now experimenters and students can get thirty days of microgravity using proven hardware that is already known to the space and educational communities, explained Twiggs, who is now a visiting professor at Morehead State University. “All of us associated with NanoRacks take seriously this unique opportunity to bring a new kind of fast-paced innovation and low-cost to space station research" said Kris Kimel of Kentucky Space. “Through our university and other facilities we can offer seamless support for payload design, development and testing.”

Regular flight opportunities to the ISS are now available for organizations wanting to do affordable, repeatable research in microgravity. For more information about this exciting initiative, contact Kris Kimel at 859.233.3502.