| GeneSat-1 | |
| Mission Type: | Technology demonstration Bioscience |
| Operator: | NASA |
| Cospar Id: | 2006-058C |
| Satcat: | 29655 |
| Mission Duration: | 21 days (planned) |
| Spacecraft Type: | CubeSat |
| Spacecraft Bus: | 3U CubeSat |
| Manufacturer: | Ames Research Center Stanford University |
| Power: | 4.5 watts |
| Launch Date: | 16 December 2006, 12:00:00 UTC |
| Launch Rocket: | Minotaur 1 |
| Launch Site: | MARS, LP-0B |
| Launch Contractor: | Orbital Sciences Corporation |
| Entered Service: | 16 December 2010 |
| Decay Date: | 4 August 2010 |
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric orbit |
| Orbit Regime: | Low Earth orbit |
| Orbit Inclination: | 40.0° |
| Orbit Period: | 92.9 minutes |
| Apsis: | gee |
GeneSat-1 is a NASA fully automated, CubeSat spaceflight system that provides life support for bacteria E. Coli K-12. The system was launched into orbit on 16 December 2006, from Wallops Flight Facility.[1] GeneSat-1 began to transmit data on its first pass over the mission's California ground station.
The nanosatellite[2] contains onboard micro-laboratory systems such as sensors and optical systems that can detect proteins that are the products of specific genetic activity. Knowledge gained from GeneSat-1 is intended to aid scientific understanding of how spaceflight affects the human body.[3]
Weighing 4.6 kilograms, the miniature laboratory was a secondary payload on an Air Force four-stage Minotaur 1 launch vehicle that delivered the Air Force TacSat-2 satellite to orbit. In the development of the GeneSat satellite class (at a fraction of what it normally costs to conduct a mission in space), Ames Research Center (Small Spacecraft Office) collaborated with organisations in industry and also universities local to the center. It is NASA's first fully automated, self-contained biological spaceflight experiment on a satellite of its size.