The Surrey team has a cubesat programme called Strand ( Surrey Training, Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator).

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The satellite is also expected to drop off two secondary "passengers" - an Earth observation spacecraft for Vietnam and a "nanosatellite" built by students in Estonia.

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One of the latest is the so-called ExoPlanetSat nanosatellite developed by MIT and Draper Laboratory, which recently got the go-ahead from NASA's Cubesat Launch Initiative and is now set to hitch a ride into space sometime in 2012.

ENGADGET: ExoPlanetSat nanosatellite to begin search for alien worlds next year