BlackCAT
BlackCAT (Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) is a small X-ray astronomy space telescope in the form of a 6U CubeSat developed by NASA and Penn State. Its objective is to observe gamma ray bursts, counterparts to multi-messenger events, and other high energy transient astronomical events. The spacecraft launched on 11 January 2026 on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission "Twilight" together with two other astronomy mission by NASA: Pandora and SPARCS. The spacecraft is expected to undergo two months of in-orbit commissioning followed by a one year science mission.
Also recorded as Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope
BlackCAT
- Name
- BlackCAT
- Region
- United States
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wikidata · Q137766350 · wikipedia · BlackCAT
In this article
Overview
Overview
Its orbital lifetime is expected to be approximately 10 years.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — BlackCAT • Mission Type — Space telescope (Astrophysics) • Operator — NASA • Cospar Id — 2026-004? • Satcat — 673?? • Mission Duration — 14 months (planned) 11 January 2026 (in progress) • Manufacturer — Penn State • Launch Date — 11 January 2026, 13:44:50 UTC • Launch Rocket — Falcon 9 (booster 1097) • Launch Site — Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 • Launch Contractor — SpaceX • Orbit Reference — Geocentric • Orbit Regime — Dawn/dusk sun-synchronous orbit • Orbit Altitude — 500 to 600 km
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Places
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- United States
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article BlackCAT, revision 1338133033 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Current Projects – The Falcone Group. sites.psu.edu.
- 2.Research Portal. laro.lanl.gov.
- 3.Kulu, Erik. BlackCAT. Nanosats Database.
- 4.Tomaswick, Andy. A CubeSat Mission Will Detect X-rays from GRBs and Black-Hole Mergers. Universe Today. 2025-01-07.
- 5.Colosimo, Joseph. The BlackCAT CubeSat Wide-Field X-Ray Transient Monitor. American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #245. 245. 144.01D. 2025.
- 6.Falcone, Abraham D. The BlackCAT CubeSat: a soft x-ray coded aperture telescope. Proceedings Volume 13625, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXIV. 14. 2025. 978-1-5106-9158-2.
- 7.Falcone, Abraham D. Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. SPIE. 91. 2024-08-21. 978-1-5106-7509-4.
- 8.NASA's Pandora Satellite, CubeSats to Explore Exoplanets, Beyond - NASA Science. 2026-01-09.
- 9.A cereal-box-sized space telescope heads for the stars ASU News. news.asu.edu. 2026-01-08.
- 10.Davenport, Justin. SpaceX's Twilight rideshare mission set to fly from Vandenberg. NASASpaceFlight.com. 2026-01-11.
- 11.Twilight (Pandora & Others) Falcon 9 Block 5 Next Spaceflight. nextspaceflight.com.
- 12.Foust, Jeff. NASA astrophysics, commercial satellites launch on SpaceX rideshare mission. SpaceNews. 2026-01-11.
- 13.Luciani 0, Massimo. A success for the launch of NASA's Pandora, BlackCAT, and SPARCS astronomical missions. 2026-01-11.
- 14.Colosimo, Joseph M. Expected Gamma-Ray Burst Detection Rates and Redshift Distributions for the BlackCAT CubeSat Mission. The Astrophysical Journal. 969. 2. 138. 2024-10-01. 10.3847/1538-4357/ad4f8b.
References
Citations
References
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authority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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