Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) was selected by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Small Spacecraft Technology program and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley — in collaboration with the University of Florida and MIT — to provide multiple 3U spacecraft for its CubeSat Lasercom Infrared Crosslink (CLICK) flight demonstration missions. The cubesats will be used for separate demonstration missions: the first is a laser space-to-ground demonstration mission and the second will demonstrate laser crosslinks and ranging in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

The new communication capabilities demonstrated by CLICK aim to enable new classes of small satellite missions like swarms for remote sensing or global constellations for communications.

“Demonstrating precision timing and ranging over a lasercom crosslink using BCT CubeSat platforms will enable new capabilities for coordinated and distributed sensing missions,” said Kerri Cahoy, associate professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.