01 / 07 · Target 2029
Launch
After two to three years of design and testing on campus, SPACE RACCOON gets to orbit!
Tufts CubeSat Team
Building Tufts' first ever satellite.
SPACE RACCOON is a 2U CubeSat mission using onboard computer vision and machine learning to detect, classify, and assess collision risk in Low Earth Orbit.
- CubeSat form factor
- 2U
- CubeSat form factor
- Low Earth Orbit
- LEO
- Low Earth Orbit
- Mission duration
- 14 mo
- Mission duration
- Target launch
- 2029
- Target launch
The mission
From launch pad to open data.
02 / 07 · Low Earth Orbit · 14 months
Reach orbit
Deployed into Low Earth Orbit for a 14-month mission, the satellite runs on body-mounted solar cells.
03 / 07 · Vision payload
Detect
During scheduled imaging windows a modified GoPro captures a frame every 30 seconds, searching for debris against the star field.
04 / 07 · Onboard computer vision
Classify
Image processing isolates each object and a neural network classifies it (fragment, rocket body, defunct satellite) on the spacecraft.
05 / 07 · Collision screening
Assess the risk
Tracks across frames feed a collision-risk assessment that flags the objects that matter most to anything else flying in LEO.
06 / 07 · VHF / UHF
Downlink
Only frames that contain debris are compressed, packetized, and sent over our radio link to a student-built ground station.
07 / 07 · Open source
Open to everyone
Flight software and debris data are all open-source to support safer orbital operations and the student teams that come after us!
Inside SPACE RACCOON
Manufactured on campus.
A 2U CubeSat is just 10 × 10 × 22.7 cm. Inside that volume sits everything the mission needs: structure, power, flight software and vision, and the radio link.
Roadmap
26-27 Timeline:
September
- Avionics board complete
October
- Image processing software complete
- Avionics board tested
November
- Structure design prototype manufactured
December
- ADCS board design complete
February
- Flight software complete
- Reaction wheel manufacturing complete
March
- More to come…
Where we and our alumni work
Skills from CubeSat carry into industry. We also collaborate with MIT and UMass Lowell.
- Medtronic
- Draper
- NVIDIA
- Blue Origin
- Takeda
- MITRE
- Amazon Robotics
Last updated: November 2, 2026