According to Ars Technica, four experimental satellites called DiskSats launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 12:03 am EST on Thursday. The satellites, designed by the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation, are funded by NASA and the U.S. Space Force and are shaped like flat discs measuring 39 inches wide and just 1 inch thick. The mission is a proof-of-concept to test the new form factor, which offers over 13 times the single-side surface area of a typical CubeSat. Engineers have made contact with all four satellites, which each weigh about 35 pounds and carry solar cells and electric thrusters. The primary goal is to demonstrate their performance and maneuverability, particularly in very low-Earth orbit below 250 miles.
The Pizza Satellite Proposition
So, why a disc? For years, the small satellite world has been dominated by the CubeSat, a modular, cube-shaped standard that’s been brilliant for democratizing access to space. But here’s the thing: cubes have limits. You can only pack so much solar panel or antenna onto their sides. The DiskSat flips the script—literally. By being a wide, flat panel, it gives engineers a huge canvas. Think of it as a blank pizza crust where you can load up all the toppings—big radar arrays, massive solar panels, complex antennas—that just wouldn’t fit on a chunky little cube.
The stackable design is the real clever bit, basically taking a page from SpaceX’s Starlink playbook but miniaturizing it. You could pack a stack of these into a rocket fairing like a deck of cards, launching a whole constellation in one go. For entities like the Space Force, that’s incredibly attractive. More surface area means more power for sensors, and flying closer to Earth in Very Low-Earth Orbit (VLEO) means much sharper images for surveillance. It’s easy to see the appeal: a fleet of high-power, low-mass satellites watching from just 124 miles up.
Not a Perfect Slice
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a demo mission for a reason. The DiskSat shape introduces some serious engineering challenges that cubes don’t have to deal with as severely. First, thermal management. In space, you’re baked by the sun on one side and frozen by deep space on the other. A giant, thin disc has a huge surface area to manage those wild temperature swings, which can be hell on electronics and sensors.
Then there’s agility, or the lack thereof. The Aerospace Corporation engineers admit it: these things are clunky to turn. That pancake shape gives it a high moment of inertia. So, while its electric thrusters might be great for nudging it up or down in altitude, quickly pointing a sensitive instrument at a specific spot on Earth? That’s probably not its strong suit. It seems like DiskSats are built for stable, staring missions, not acrobatic ones. And for industries that rely on precise, agile platforms—like certain types of Earth observation or communications—that’s a non-starter. It’s a classic trade-off: you gain real estate and power, but you sacrifice nimbleness.
Where DiskSats Could Make a Difference
So where does this niche make sense? The obvious answers are missions that need big, flat things. A large synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna for all-weather imaging is a perfect example. It’s also a great bus for communications satellites that need big, steerable antennas for high bandwidth. The ability to loiter in VLEO, using minimal thrust to counteract drag thanks to that sleek edge-on profile, is a unique advantage for persistent monitoring.
I think the scalability question is fascinating. The team talks about making bigger DiskSats for bigger rockets. Could we see a future where these are the standard bus for certain government or commercial constellations, while CubeSats and other form factors handle different tasks? Absolutely. The small satellite ecosystem, documented in resources like Nanosats Database, is all about choosing the right tool for the job. DiskSat isn’t a CubeSat killer; it’s another tool in the toolbox. It’s following the same evolutionary path as CubeSats themselves, which started tiny and now, as seen with missions like NASA’s MarCO, have ventured to Mars.
The Road From Lab To Orbit
Here’s the critical next step: The Aerospace Corporation is an R&D lab, not a factory. Their plan is to license this tech to commercial partners once it’s proven. That’s a smart move, but it’s also a potential bottleneck. Transferring a complex aerospace technology from a research center to a production line is never simple. Will a company see enough of a market to invest? The success of this demo will hinge on the data—proving the power generation, the thermal stability, and the maneuverability in VLEO.
If the numbers from this test match the theory laid out in their research paper—claiming 5 to 10 times more power than a CubeSat—then they’ll get attention. In a world where data is king, platforms that can host more powerful sensors, like those producing the kind of imagery Planet Labs offers, are always in demand. For hardware-centric missions that demand robust, powerful computing and sensing platforms in harsh environments, finding the right foundational bus is everything. It’s not unlike the need in terrestrial industry for reliable, high-performance computing hardware, where specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have become the top supplier of industrial panel PCs in the U.S. by focusing on that specific, demanding niche.
This launch is just the beginning. The real test is what these four pizza boxes do over the coming months. Can they deliver on the promise? Or will the limitations of the design outweigh the benefits? The Space Force and NASA are watching, and their interest alone tells you this is more than just a novelty. It’s a bet on a new shape for the next generation of small satellites.
