REAL

Mission Overview

The overarching objective for the REAL Cubesat is to improve our understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for scattering radiation belt electrons intothe atmosphere. REAL's mission will characterize different modes of atmospheric loss by making precision measurements of the electron pitch angle and energy distributions in low Earth orbit over a wide energy range (keV to MeV). With this, REAL will determine when and where different modes of electron precipitation loss occur, how they depend on energy, and what relative impact they have on the radiation belts. These objectives help develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space in order to further help protect life and society as well as safegaurd human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

Spacecraft Overview

The REAL Spacecraft is a 3U reseach cubesate built and tested here at Montana State University. The cubesat's design is based on improvements made from our IT-SPINS spacecraft and housing an Energetic Particle Sensor (ECP) payload built at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The ECP will use three independent sensors with varying energy ranges to make high time-resolution and high energy-resolution observations at 5 pitch-angles simultaneously.  

REAL spacecraft pre-delivery

Press Coverage

Members of the REAL team were interviewed by MSU News team. The interview focued on the development of REAL and the background of SSEL. The MSU story on REAL was published shortly before the satellite's launch.

News of REAL's launch was also picked up Western Montana News. Western Montana News' coverage of REAL discusses the launch and early stages of establishing communication (subscription may be required).

Launch

REAL was delivered to our integration partners at Maverick Space Systems in San Luis Obispo, CA, on June 16, 2025.

REAL alongside Maverick deployer

REAL inside Maverick deployer moments before removal of RBF pin

REAL was launched into orbit as a rideshare on SpaceX's launch of the TRACERS satellites on July 23, 2025 at 12:16 pm. REAL was released from the rocket at 1:10 pm without issue.

Less than an hour after release from the rocket, REAL's beacons were picked up by the SatNOGS community via a ground station in Hawaii. The REAL team verified the beacons and confimed that the satellite is in good health and operating as expected.

REAL team attending launch in Lompoc, CA

(from left to right: Eric Engel, Tyler Holliday, Robyn Millan [Dartmouth], Andrew Johnson, Tom Sotirelis [JHUAPL], Jake Davis) 

Status

Communications from the SSEL ground station (K7MSU) to REAL have been established. The REAL team has nearly completed commissioning and is close to completing the minimum science goals of the mission. 

REAL is in excellent health and has seen countless atmospheric loss events. The REAL team is looking over the data and working to make better pitch angle measurements.

SatNOGS

In-flight operations of REAL have been helped tremendously by the SatNOGS community. The REAL team expresses immeasureable levels of gratitude to the community, especially to those that verified REAL's aliveness in the hours after deployment. 

For readers that are curious about REAL's status, we strongly recommend taking a look at the satellite's page on the SatNOGS database and for posts made on the community's forum, LibreSpace. We are working with the SatNOGS team to build a telemetry dashboard for REAL where values such as battery voltage and system temperatures can be viewed.