A

David

Darling

OPAL (Orbiting PicoSat Launcher)

OPAL (Orbiting PicoSat Launcher) was a small Stanford University satellite, launched from the JAWSAT payload adaptor on 26 January 2000, and which in turn deployed six even smaller picosatellites. Two of these picosatellites were tethered and built by the Aerospace Corporation for ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency) research, three (Thelma, Louise, and JAK) were built by Santa Clara College, and one (Stensat) was provided by radio amateurs. OPAL had a mass of 23.1 kilograms and measured approximately 20 centimeters in each direction.

 

OPAL