ecamsat ecamsat ecamsat, or e. coli antimicrobial satellite, was nasa's first 6u cubesat, developed to investigate the effects of microgravity on the antibiotic resistance of e. coli. the spacecraft was launched aboard an orbital atk antares rocket from wallops flight facility on 12 november 2017, and was deployed from the international space station on 20 november 2017. ecamsatmission typebiological researchoperatorsanta clara universitycospar id1998-067ng satcat no.43019websiteecamsatmission duration25 days152.5 hr main experiment spacecraft propertiesbusnasa nanosat 1.0 busmanufacturernasalaunch mass10.7 kilograms (24 lb) start of missionlaunch date12 november 2017, 12:19 (2017-11-12utc12:19z) utcrocketantares 230launch sitemars lp-0acontractororbital atk end of missiondecay date8 december 2021 orbital parametersreference systemgeocentricregimelow earthperigee altitude405.7 kilometres (252.1 mi)apogee altitude413.4 kilometres (256.9 mi)inclination51.6 degreesperiod92.6 minutesepoch1 december 2017 background during the development of the pharmasat spacecraft, two identical flight units were built and brought to the launch site, with the flt-2 unit being the one ultimately launched as "pharmasat". the flt-1 unit sat in storage, and was later put to use as a nasa ames research center mission of opportunity (moo) flight, selected for funding under the stand alone missions of opportunity program. originally named "pharmasat-ecam", ecamsat was developed from both legacy hardware and software from the pharmasat mission. ecamsat was the fifth mission to utilize nasa ames research center's nanosat 1.0 bus, which has flown on genesat-1, pharmasat, nanosail-d2, and o/oreos. operations ecamsat was operated by santa clara university's robotic systems lab in santa clara, california. after deployment, the first amateur radio beacon packets were received by amateur radio operator ja0caw on 20 november 2017, and santa clara university closed the s-band radio link for the first time on 21 november 2017. ecamsat transmitted an ax.25 beacon packet once every 5 seconds at 437.100 megahertz.