AeroCube-3
Phase A occurs with the AeroCube-3 tethered to the Orion 38 motor that is the upper stage for the TacSat-3 Minotaur launch vehicle.During this phase, AeroCube-3 will measure its dynamics while on the end of a 61 m (200 ft)-long tether attached to a tumbling object (the upper stage).A VGA-resolution camera with a wide-angle field of view will attempt to photograph the upper stage on orbit.[5] The standard deployment system for cubesats, the P-POD was developed by the Aerospace Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.After the primary satellite has been released and a collision and contamination avoidance maneuver has been performed, each cubesat will be deployed separately from the P-POD into space.