Cubesat's are satellites in the shape of cubes approximately 4 inches on a side. Students at SSEL have been developing cubesats continuously for over 6 years. These students build cubesats to gain experience in aerospace but end up making advances by simply trying naive ideas that would never occur to seasoned industry veterans. NASA and the space industry fund these projects because their workforce is rapidly dwindling as the first generation of rocket scientists retires.

The second SSEL cubesat design, Electra, has been in development for almost three years. Originally tasked with carrying a large spool of space tether, the electronics and structure had to occupy less space than any cubesat ever developed. SSEL students have pushed the limits on current cubesat technology, incorporating high tech elements from laptop computers, cell phones, and know-how gleaned from on site experience at major satellite laboratories. Though initially tasked with a space tether orbital dynamics experiment Electra's mission changed forever on July 29, 2006.

Late that night a Russian converted ICBM carrying MEROPE, Montana's and SSEL's first cubesat failed to achieve orbit, crashing into the sage deserts of rural Kazahkstan. MEROPE carried a Geiger counter experiment very similar to that flown on the Explorer I mission. It was to demonstrate that with 21st century technology, a small group of students with little experience and a handful of off the shelf parts could repeat the mission of America's first satellite.

Though the satellite was destroyed, it still performed its mission, because of MEROPE the ranks of scientists and engineers have swelled with new blood. To carry on MEROPE's purpose and to honor America's achievement in Explorer I 50 years ago Electra has been retooled to be Explorer I (Prime); it will carry a Geiger counter payload very similar to MEROPE's. In addition Explorer I (Prime) will demonstrate a high data rate communications link as well as technology developed for MEROPE such as deployable tape measure antennae. In the intervening years since MEROPE was commissioned cubesats have become more commonplace in industry making the prospect of finding an American launch provider more rosy than in 2001. When Explorer I (Prime) goes to space sometime in late 2008 it will ride an American from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

In 1958 a Russian launch spread shock waves around the world and spurred Americans to answer in kind with an entry of their own. 50 years later young American scientists are again racing the clock and pushing technology barriers to answer a different kind of shock wave from another Russian launch.