CubIXSS Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Spacecraft	CubIXSS (CubeSat Imaging X-Ray Solar Spectrometer)
Form factor	CubeSat
Units or mass	6U
Status	not launched, expected in 2025
Launcher	Falcon 9, (TSIS-2)
Organization	Southwest Research Institute
Institution	Institute
Entity	Government (Civil / Military)
Nation	US
Operator	In-house?
Oneliner	Study the origins of hot plasma in solar flares and active regions.
Description	The CubeSat Imaging X-Ray Solar Spectrometer (CubIXSS) mission will study the origins of hot plasma in solar flares and active regions. CubIXSS will perform soft X-ray spectroscopy of coronal emissions using a new approach that provides unprecedented spectral coverage while still providing adequate spatial resolution to distinguish emissions from different flares and active regions. Variations of soft X-ray emissions are a significant driver of changes in Earth’s upper atmosphere, including the ionosphere and thermosphere. These variations are caused by changes on the Sun, including impulsive events such as solar flares as well as more gradual processes such as the evolution and rotation of active regions. CubIXSS will quantify soft X-ray variability from all these sources, providing crucial and currently unavailable information on the solar input to Earth’s upper atmosphere and its impact on near-Earth space.
Sources	[1] [2] [3]
Photo sources	[1]

Last modified: 2025-04-19