Two student-built CubeSats launched on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, to the International Space Station to take university engineering projects into orbit, NASA reported in a blog post published the same day. The satellites were part of more than 6,300 pounds of cargo that lifted off aboard the 35th SpaceX commercial resupply mission for NASA; a Falcon 9 rocket launched at 6:33 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The satellites are part of the multi-university Pleiades Five program, built around five PROVES (Pleiades Rapid Orbital Verification Experiment System) CubeSats. The project was selected through NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative in 2024 and uses an openly documented spacecraft kit, with design files and software available for other teams to study and improve. Texas State University's PROVES-Maia, assembled in March in the team's clean room, was planned to relay digital messages for amateur radio operators using UHF and S-band communications after deploying from the station. PROVES-Taygeta, a collaboration between Cal Poly Pomona's Bronco Space Lab and Mt. San Antonio College, carries a camera and a radiation-sensing experiment alongside its amateur radio mission.

The teams planned to test intersatellite message routing using an open-source protocol called DRIFT and to publish a ground-station design. The launch builds on three partner spacecraft that flew to the station in April aboard NASA's Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission, according to the report.