Lookit That, It Had a Baby Satellite

A satellite is ejected from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer on the International Space Station on Dec. 19, 2016.  The satellite is actually two small satellites that, once at a safe distance from the station, separated from each other, but were still connected by a 100-meter-long Kevlar tether.  NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson helped the JAXA ground team to deploy the satellite, called Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite (STARS-C). Once deployed, STARS-C will point toward Earth and use a spring system and gravitational forces to separate, pushing one satellite closer to the planet.  Besides being a technology demonstration, the investigation will also collect electrons from the plasma environment in space to analyze the creation of an electrical current.

The satellite deployment capability provides a unique satellite launching system for use on the station.  Handled by the robotic arm known as the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS), the system provides a reliable, safe and economically viable means of deploying small research satellites into orbit.  Crew members load pre-packed satellites into J-SSOD on a special sliding table in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) airlock to transfer the payload to the space environment where the robotic arm will grapple it and maneuver into position for deployment.

Image Credit: NASA

Since the baby satellite doesn't seem to have any propulsion system, that JEMRMS must give it a kick to send it on its way.  Otherwise it would just hang right there by the ISS so it seems there must be something to that nature.

Some of you probably remember Skylab and it's far distant now.

An overhead view of the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit as photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules (CSM) during the final fly-around by the CSM before returning home.  The space station is contrasted against a cloud-covered Earth.  Note the solar shield which was deployed by the second crew of Skylab and from which a micro meteoroid shield has been missing since the cluster was launched on May 14, 1973.  The Orbital Workshop (OWS) solar panel on the left side was also lost on workshop launch day.  Inside the Command Module (CM) when this picture was made were astronaut Gerald P. Carr, commander; scientist-astronaut Edward G. Gibson, science pilot; and astronaut William R. Pogue, pilot.  The crew used a 70mm hand-held Hasselblad camera to take this photograph.

Image Credit: NASA