The fifth FalconSat spacecraft to be launched, it carries four technology development and ionospheric research experiments.

Meanwhile, the Wafer-Integrated Spectrometer, WISPERS, will observe the plume generated by the Hall thruster, allowing a comparison to be made to theoretical data.

It is a reflight of the original SmartMESA mission, which was lost when FalconSat-2 failed to achieve orbit.

The Minotaur was launched at 01:25:00 UTC on 20 November 2010,[1] with FalconSat-5 separating into its low Earth orbit just over 25 minutes later.

[1] Collectively, the deployment mission was designated STP-S26, and marked the third flight of the Minotaur IV.