The delivery system was launched into space on Tuesday

Nov 21, 2013 09:42 GMT  ·  By

Officials at NASA say that the latest rocket the United States Air Force launched into space carried on board two of the agency's experiments, a second-generation smartphone cubesat, and a deployment system developed for small spacecraft called nanosatellites. 

The Minotaur I rocket that carried these auxiliary payloads into low-Earth orbit was launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island, Virginia.

The Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System (NLAS) was developed at NASA to support the launch of numerous nanosats into Earth's orbit. It is capable of fitting various shape configurations, and is able to carry a total of 100 pounds (roughly 47 kilograms) of cargo.

The other experiment, a second-generation smartphone cubesat called PhoneSat 2.4, is meant to determine if smartphones can be used as control systems for satellite missions. Experts are also interested in whether or not these devices can be used to establish communications between Mission Control and small satellites.