[Satellite TODAY 12-08-10] NASA ejected the NanoSail-D nanosatellite from its Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSat), demonstrating the agency’s first deployment of this kind, NASA announced Dec. 6.
    Nanosatellites are typically launched and deployed from a mechanism called a Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) mounted directly on a launch vehicle. NASA said this is the first time the agency has mounted a P-POD on a microsatellite to eject a nanosatellite.
   FASTSat, equipped with six science and technology demonstration payloads, including NanoSail-D, launched in November from Kodiak Island, Alaska.