Under sponsorship by the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has developed a modular nanosatellite approach where hardware and software "black-box" elements can be combined very quickly to form or "compile" simple spacecraft. SPA and CubeFlow are fully compliant with, and extend, the Stanford/CalPoly CubeSat and Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Dispenser (PPOD) standards by permitting interchangeability of components. As a result, distributed groups can create individual component parts that can be brought together and quickly assembled using plug-and-play (PnP) mechanisms, similar to those in personal computers. The basis of the electrical and software infrastructure is the AFRL Space PnP Architecture (SPA), scaled for nanosatellite purposes. The combination of the CubeSat format, plug-and-play interface standards and components, and workflow-oriented tools is termed "CubeFlow". While some technical challenges remain in fully maturing the CubeFlow framework, it is becoming available for general use during 2010-2011. COSMIAC offers courses in the use of CubeFlow, as well as packaged CubeFlow developer kits.

See more information on the CubeFlow Training page.