LICIACube

Parts of this article (those related to according to ASI website, https://www.asi.it/en/planets-stars-universe/solar-system-and-beyond/liciacube/ mission end was in 2022, so it's probably not operational now) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2024)

LICIACube

LICIACube at the Applied Physics Laboratory in August 2021
Mission type	Deep Space CubeSat
Operator	Italian Space Agency
COSPAR ID	2021-110C
SATCAT no.	T00005
Mission duration	Elapsed: 1 year, 10 months and 7 days
Spacecraft properties
Bus	6U CubeSat
Manufacturer	Argotec
Launch mass	14 kg (31 lb)
Dimensions	10 cm × 20 cm × 30 cm (3.9 in × 7.9 in × 11.8 in)
Power	Solar array × 2
Start of mission
Launch date	24 November 2021, 06:21:02 UTC
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5, B1063.3
Launch site	Vandenberg Space Force Base, SLC-4E
Deployed from	DART
Deployment date	11 September 2022, 23:14 UTC
Orbital parameters
Regime	Heliocentric orbit
Flyby of Didymos system
Closest approach	26 September 2022 at ~23:17 UTC, or ~19:17 EDT, ~16:17 PDT, 27 September, ~01:17 CET
Distance	56.7 km (35.2 mi)
Instruments
LEIA LUKE

Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube, IPA: [ˈli.t͡ʃi.əˌkjuːb]^[1]) is a six-unit CubeSat of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). LICIACube is a part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and carries out observational analysis of the Didymos asteroid binary system after DART's impact on Dimorphos. It communicates directly with Earth, sending back images of the ejecta and plume of DART's impact as well as having done asteroidal study during its flyby of the Didymos system from a distance of 56.7 km (35.2 mi), 165 seconds after DART's impact.^[2] LICIACube is the first purely Italian autonomous spacecraft in deep space. Data archiving and processing is managed by the Space Science Data Center (SSDC) of the ASI.