This might look like the start of a scene from Gravity, but you’re actually looking at three nanosatellites — known as Cubesats — which have just been released in space.
They were deployed from a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Kibo laboratory’s robotic arm aboard the ISS. CubeSats are cute little things: they have a volume of exactly one litre, and they weigh no more than 1.33kg. They use pretty standard kit tied together to perform a variety of activities — from communications to weather measurement. These Cubesats were deployed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. [NASA]
Picture: NASA