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Orbit Your Own Satellite For $8,000

Posted by kdawson on from the be-the-first-on-your-block dept.

RobGoldsmith sends word of Interorbital's TubeSat Personal Satellite Kit, which allows anyone to send a half-pound payload to low-earth orbit for $8,000. Your satellite will fly to orbit from Tonga atop an Interorbital Systems NEPTUNE 30 rocket along with 31 other TubeSats. It will function for several weeks, then its orbit will decay and it will burn up in the atmosphere. Interorbital plans to send up a load of 32 TubeSats every month. If you pay in full in advance, you get slotted onto a particular scheduled launch. Here are Interorbital's product page and brochure (PDF).

6 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Do I... by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...get to chose where it comes down? I really don't know, but I wonder if one could design a .5 pound satellite with the express intention of surviving re-entry, like a 1/2 pound slug of lead in the shape of a dart or a sphere.

    I don't need much mass to survive the heat of re-entry. A few grams at orbital velocity, in the right place, would be enough to give my enemies pause...

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    $tar -xvf .sig.tar
    1. Re:Do I... by Narnie · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...get to chose where it comes down? I really don't know, but I wonder if one could design a .5 pound satellite with the express intention of surviving re-entry, like a 1/2 pound slug of lead in the shape of a dart or a sphere.

      That's one heck of a way to commit suicide.

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      greed@All_Evils:~#
  2. Re:Will falling space debris be a problem? by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Funny

    /me hides half-pound ball of nickel-cobalt cement reinforced with titantium carbide behind his back

    What was that?

  3. Re:Ashes in space business by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think there are people who can get you that high for even less per gram. Well, for your first hit anyway.

  4. Re:I forsee by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Funny

    fine, then you get to chop up the body into half-pound chunks.

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    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  5. Re:Pirates in Space! by Dan541 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What?

    You honestly expect that to stop the RIAA?

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    An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"