The countdown to launch is on! The CubeSat to Study Solar Particles or CuSP mission is preparing for lift off aboard NASA’s Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built. The six-unit CubeSat is a micro-satellite carrying three instruments designed to measure solar particles and assess space weather. Space scientists want to learn more about conditions in space that can disrupt technology and air travel on Earth. This is SwRI’s first CubeSat mission, but not the last.

Listen now as SwRI’s Dr. Mihir Desai, CuSP principal investigator, discusses the CuSP mission and his team’s vision to create a network of space weather stations.