US space agency NASA’s Landsat-9 satellite will not be alone when it takes out from Vanderburg Space Force Base on Monday; the cargo fairing will have several other passengers.

The mission will send the spacecraft “CuPID” and “CUTE” into orbit to study the immensity of space and the phenomena that exist there.

Aside from the two, two other classified satellites belonging to the US Space Force will be put into orbit.

Both CuPID and CUTE, according to Nasa, are Cubesats, a type of very small research satellite that was relatively affordable to create.

“Both CuPID and CUTE are smaller than microwave ovens, yet they will address issues about vast questions in space from their vantage positions in low-Earth orbit,” Nasa stated in a statement. 

The CuPID will investigate the Earth’s magnetic field’s borders to examine how solar energy can penetrate our planet’s magnetic barrier, while the CUTE will focus its telescope on planets outside our solar system to see how quickly their atmospheres are leaving. 

The space agency said that the launch is scheduled to take place at 2.11pm EDT (11.41pm IST).

The satellite will be launched from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket.

Landsat-9 will carry on the history of monitoring Earth’s land and coastal regions that began with the first satellite in the series in 1972, according to Nasa. 

NASA said in a statement that the rocket will deliver Landsat 9 to its orbit 438 miles above Earth. 

(With inputs from agencies)