Thinking Inside the Box, Launching into Space – This image is an artist concept of two tiny, cube-shaped research satellites that hitched a ride to Earth orbit to validate new hardware and software technologies for future NASA Earth-observing instruments. The cube satellites, or “CubeSats,” which typically have a volume of exactly 33.814 ounces (1 liter), were launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 11:14 p.m. PST, Dec. 5, from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base as part of the NROL-39 GEMSat mission. These two CubeSats will help enable near-real-time processing capabilities relevant to future climate science measurements. IPEX will demonstrate software that will enable future NASA missions to recognize science events such as flooding, volcanism and wildfires, and respond by sending alerts and autonomously acquiring follow-up imagery,” said Steve Chien of JPL, principal investigator for the IPEX mission. The other CubeSat launched is the Michigan Multipurpose Mini-sa...