NASA's Earth Science Division's Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP) is a joint effort of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory, Science and Technology Corp. and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to gather data on water and ice particles in the atmosphere. The cubesat is scheduled to launch in January from the International Space Station on a Northrop Grumman Cygnus capsule. Credit for artistic rendering of HARP’s wide field of view of aerosols: NASA, UMBC and Space Dynamics Laboratory

NASA Earth Science leaders are enthusiastic about the potential for principal investigators to take advantage of new low-cost launch options.

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Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She is a recipient...