The world's first 12U CubeSat, built by Northwestern Polytechnical University, on-board LM-7, was launched into the pre-selected orbit from Wenchang, Hainan, on June 25. On the next day, the first data this CubeSat sent back to the ground was received by NPU, which has very well tested and verified the on-orbit polarized skylight navigation technology. This world leading technology will open up many possibilities in the domain of space. 

CubeSat is a kind of low-cost satellites based on the international standard, which is unified by "U", referring to one standard unit (10cm*10cm*10cm, about one kilogram). Although it looks like a Rubik's cube, its computer system board of less than 10cm can operate various satellite-borne systems, such as satellite attitude, thermal control, application of the load and so on. It is advanced with the integrated circuit of only dozens of grams, the thumb-sized momentum wheel, the coin-sized antenna for the communication between the star and the earth, and the linking equipment wires of less than one millimeter thickness. The CubeSat is characterized by low cost, large functional density, short lead time and fast injection.  

The network distribution of CubeSats can supervise sea, atmospheric environment, ships, and spacecrafts. It is acknowledged that CubeSat is the main developing direction of micro-satellites, whose application was once listed as one of ten major science and technology developments by Science in 2014.

 Named as "Ao Xiang Star", this 12U CubeSat weighs about 10 kilograms and is running on the near-earth orbit of 350 kilometer altitudes, with an in-orbit life span of 3 months approximately. Its task is to measure the optical polarization mode of the earth atmosphere to supply the data for the research of the polarization navigation technology. It is predicted that such kind of CubeSat can be applied in many fields, such as flying inspection, remote sensing over the ground and data relay. 

"Ao Xiang Star" consists of the sub-systems of construction, thermal control, power supply, communication, and attitude management, along with satellite-borne computer of high reliability, micro-triaxial flywheel system, small-sized GPS, satellite-borne power management system, small anti-radiation computer, satellite frame system, and integrated satellite ground tester. 

Zhou Jun, chief designer of "Ao Xiang Star", director of Shaanxi micro-satellite engineering lab of NPU, illustrated the limitation of 2U or 3U in scientific research and application due to their mall sizes. The 12U CubeSat would greatly expand the CubeSat research and application fields. According to Zhou Jun, his lab would work to establish the international standards for 12U CubeSat, some of which would come from Chinese scientists.  

It is expected that Zhou Jun's lab would offer customized satellite services for the public after overall industrialization, such as customized communication, customized map and so on, and "private customized satellite" is not a wild dream anymore in the future.