NASA's Space Launch System: The Giant That Carries Miniature Explorers to Deep Space

Introduction: A New Era of Cosmic Delivery

In the vast expanse of space exploration, a revolutionary partnership has emerged—one between the most powerful rocket ever built and some of the smallest spacecraft ever launched. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 322 feet, is capable of carrying not only crew capsules to the moon but also dozens of miniature satellites called CubeSats into the depths of our solar system. This extraordinary capability represents a paradigm shift in how we conduct space science, allowing researchers to deploy entire fleets of affordable spacecraft across the cosmos using a single launch vehicle. The SLS transforms from a mere transportation system to a deep-space delivery service that is democratizing access to the final frontier ^{1 4} .

The Artemis I mission, launched in November 2022, marked the inaugural flight of this colossal rocket and demonstrated its unprecedented capacity to send small satellites where few have ventured before. Unlike traditional launches that place satellites in Earth orbit, SLS provides these compact explorers with enough energy to reach the moon, asteroids, and even orbit around the sun. This capability cuts transit times to distant destinations by more than half, accelerating scientific discovery while reducing mission costs and risks ¹ .

The Might Behind the Miniatures: Understanding SLS's Unprecedented Capabilities

The Space Launch System represents the pinnacle of NASA's launch vehicle technology, designed specifically for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. What makes SLS truly extraordinary is its evolutionary design approach, with multiple configurations that increase in capability over time ³ :

What truly sets SLS apart as a smallsat delivery service is its unparalleled ability to provide free deep-space access for secondary payloads. Traditional launch opportunities for small satellites typically only reach Earth orbit, requiring the satellites to carry their own expensive propulsion systems to achieve higher-energy trajectories. SLS changes this equation fundamentally by providing excess energy that can send these miniature explorers directly to interplanetary destinations ⁴ .

Artemis I: The First Cosmic Caravan of Smallsats

The inaugural flight of SLS, designated Artemis I, launched on November 16, 2022, from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B ³ . While the primary mission focused on testing the Orion spacecraft's journey around the moon and back to Earth, a secondary objective involved deploying 10 CubeSats to pursue diverse scientific missions throughout the solar system ² .

The journey to launch day was not without challenges for these small explorers. Due to multiple delays in the Artemis I launch schedule—from an originally planned 2018 launch to eventual liftoff in 2022—the CubeSats faced unexpected battery concerns. Some had been installed in their dispensers as early as July 2021, more than a year before they finally reached space ² .

"The CubeSats are relatively low cost. They have relatively low levels of redundancy and a relatively high failure rate, so we do anticipate one or more of these CubeSats to not be successful in its mission just due to the nature of the CubeSats themselves."

Artemis I Launch: The inaugural flight of SLS carrying 10 CubeSats to deep space

Artemis I CubeSat Payloads

BioSentinel: A Revolutionary Deep Space Biology Experiment

Among the diverse CubeSats deployed during Artemis I, one mission stands out for its potential to protect future human explorers: BioSentinel. Developed by NASA's Ames Research Center, this pioneering experiment aims to understand the effects of deep-space radiation on living organisms—something that hasn't been studied beyond low Earth orbit in over 40 years ⁵ .

The BioSentinel satellite represents a marvel of miniaturization, packing sophisticated biological research capabilities into a standard 6U CubeSat form factor (approximately 10×20×30 cm) ⁵ .

BioSentinel: A 6U CubeSat designed to study deep-space radiation effects on yeast

Innovative Experimental Methodology

At the heart of BioSentinel's mission is a sophisticated biological experiment using Saccharomyces cerevisiae—common baker's yeast—as a model organism to study radiation-induced DNA damage ⁵ . Yeast was selected for two crucial reasons: its highly regenerative capability allows it to survive multiple instances of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and its repair mechanisms are strikingly similar to those found in human cells ⁵ .

Other Groundbreaking Missions in the Cosmic Flotilla

While BioSentinel represents a biological approach to deep-space science, the other CubeSats on Artemis I pursued equally innovative objectives across various disciplines of space research. Together, they formed a diverse fleet of miniature explorers, each contributing unique capabilities to our understanding of the solar system.

The Future of Deep-Space Delivery: Evolving Capabilities

While Artemis I demonstrated the capability of SLS Block 1 to deploy smallsats to deep space, future configurations of the rocket promise even greater opportunities. The Block 1B configuration, scheduled to debut on the fourth SLS flight, will replace the interim cryogenic propulsion stage with a more powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) ³ . This enhancement will boost the vehicle's payload capacity to 105 metric tons to LEO and 42 metric tons to TLI—significantly increasing the available mass and volume for secondary payloads ¹ .

Perhaps more importantly for smallsats, Block 1B will offer different payload accommodation options. While Block 1 carried CubeSats in the Orion Stage Adapter, Block 1B will provide more spacious accommodations on a dedicated payload adapter ⁶ . This design can accommodate a variety of CubeSat sizes from 6U to 27U, substantially expanding the potential scope and complexity of secondary missions ⁶ .

The ability to routinely deploy smallsats to deep-space destinations at relatively low cost represents a paradigm shift in how we conduct space science. Rather than relying exclusively on billion-dollar flagship missions to high-value targets, scientists could deploy networks of smaller, specialized spacecraft across the solar system ⁴ .

Future Vision: Networks of smallsats exploring throughout the solar system

Conclusion: Democratizing Deep-Space Access

NASA's Space Launch System represents a transformative capability not just for human exploration but for space science more broadly. By providing unprecedented mass, volume, and energy for payloads traveling beyond Earth orbit, SLS has effectively democratized access to deep space—enabling small satellites to venture where previously only flagship missions could go ^{1 4} . The Artemis I mission demonstrated this revolutionary capability by deploying 10 CubeSats to pursue diverse scientific objectives throughout the Earth-Moon system and beyond.

In the coming years, we may see fleets of smallsats deployed throughout the solar system—studying asteroids, monitoring space weather, searching for resources on the moon, and preparing the way for human explorers. These miniature missions, enabled by the colossal capability of SLS, represent a new chapter in space exploration—one where access to deep space is no longer limited to only the most expensive flagship missions, but is open to a much broader community of scientists, engineers, and even private organizations ¹ .