XB Series
Blue Canyon Technologies (Raytheon)
Blue Canyon Technologies' flagship XB series is a modular, flight-proven CubeSat bus line (XB1 core avionics in 3U, 6U, 12U, and 16U configurations) built for high-precision pointing, agility, and rapid, cost-efficient mission deployment.
Technical specifications
- Configurations
- 3U, 6U, 12U, 16U CubeSat
- Core avionics
- XB1 - integrated C&DH, ADCS, RF, Power, GPS, mission software
- Pointing accuracy (3U, 2-axis, 1 tracker)
- ±0.03° (1-sigma)
- Pointing accuracy (6U/12U/16U, 3-axis, 2 trackers)
- ±0.002° (1-sigma)
- Slew rate
- 360 deg/min
- Orbit types supported
- LEO, GEO, Lunar, CisLunar
- Mission design life
- 5 years
- Maximum payload mass (XB16)
- 23 kg
- ACS type
- 3-axis reaction wheel control
- Comm band
- S-band baseline (optional X-band)
- Compatible launch vehicles
- Rocket Lab Electron, ISRO PSLV, ULA Atlas V/Vulcan, SpaceX Falcon Heavy, Firefly Alpha, NASA SLS
- Flight heritage
- 50-60+ XB CubeSats launched; 70+ satellite missions supported overall (MarCO, AMS, HaloSat, TEMPEST-D, CSIM, Starling 1-4, TROPICS, ARCSTONE, CLICK)
About
The XB series is Blue Canyon Technologies’ (a wholly owned subsidiary of RTX/Raytheon) flagship small satellite bus product line, built around the XB1 core avionics unit that integrates command and data handling, attitude determination and control, RF communications, power, GPS, and mission software into a single vertically-integrated unit. The XB1 core scales across 3U, 6U, 12U, and 16U CubeSat structures, offering 1.5U to 14U+ of internal payload volume depending on configuration. Designed for missions requiring fine pointing, tight control, agility, and low-jitter dynamics, the XB line uses TRL-9 hardware, 3-axis reaction-wheel attitude control, onboard star trackers, IMUs, torque rods and sun sensors, S-band (optionally X-band) communications, Li-ion batteries, and triple-junction solar arrays. It supports LEO, GEO, lunar, cislunar, and deep-space orbits with a 5-year design life baseline. With more than 50-60 CubeSats launched and over 70 satellite missions supported overall, the XB line has flight heritage including NASA’s MarCO (the first interplanetary CubeSats, which relayed InSight’s Mars landing data), AMS, HaloSat, TEMPEST-D, CSIM, the Starling swarm, TROPICS, ARCSTONE, and CLICK, serving NASA, DoD, and commercial customers.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.