NASA opened a new avenue for exploration and technology development with awards to three companies to launch missions dedicated to #CubeSats. The tiny, box-shaped spacecraft have emerged in the last 16 years as a quick, viable way to test components and techniques that, if proven, can be applied to much larger missions where the stakes are far greater than a simple, 4-inch cube. The price tag for each mission is one-tenth the cost of the least-expensive traditional launcher. NASA will fly CubeSats as a secondary payload. on Exploration Mission-1, the first integrated flight of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket from a modernized spaceport at NASA Kennedy. Credit: NASA #technology #technologytuesday #nasa #sls #orion #spaceport #inspace #progress #future #space #exploration #floatinginspace