CAPE (Cubesat Atmospheric Probe for Education) is a planned nano-satellite, a 3-unit cubesat. It is based on a mission study by Priv.-Doz. Dr.-Ing. Georg Herdrich and Dr.-Ing. Jaime Esper within the project team "space relevant plasma" from the institute for space systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart, in cooperation with NASA Goddard.
CAPE will have its own attitude and orbit regulation systems, including a pulsed plasma thruster (PPT) ion engine. It will slowly deorbit using these engines, releasing the MIRKA2 capsule as its payload for a controlled reentry. MIRKA2 will then gather atmospheric data and test its heat shield. Several predecessors have flown or are planned, including MIRKA2-RX & MIRKA2-ICV.