Access to space has always been a challenge, especially for organizations with limited budgets. In the last decade a group of universities has overcome many of the obstacles associated with placing experiments on orbit by using a nano-satellite standard called the 'CubeSat.' In addition to universities many private, commercial, and government organizations are now coming to appreciate the advantages of the CubeSat standard resulting in rapid growth in the CubeSat development community. Although the CubeSat standard has helped increase access to space, the number of CubeSat launch opportunities has not increased at a rate necessary to meet demand since the hardware and processes necessary to do so do not exist. U.S. based CubeSat developers face additional challenges since almost all CubeSats are launched overseas. This thesis proposes a solution to the lack of CubeSat launch availability called the NPS CubeSat Launcher (NPSCuL). The NPSCuL is a high capacity CubeSat launch mechanism, which could facilitate rideshare opportunities onboard U.S. launch vehicles. This thesis studies the design, program management, and advantages associated with such a device, and promote its development at the Naval Postgraduate School.


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