International audienceThe preliminary design of the QARMAN re-entry CubeSat developed by the von Karman Institute is presented in this paper from de-orbiting to payload choices. It represents an ideal cost-efficient platform for re-entry flight test and validation of thermal protection system (TPS) materials with a demonstration flight scheduled for June 2015. The CubeSat comprises a standard double-unit platform with sensors for atmospheric research and a functional unit for essential satellite operations. A third unit accommodating an ablative heat shield is added to protect the vehicle against the extreme aerothermal conditions of the re-entry. The challenging aspect of the project lies on the constraining mass and form factor from the CubeSat standard, 3kg and 34x10x10 cm 3. Finally, the preliminary design of the vehicle results in a payload of 400 g collecting data all along the re-entry trajectory including the maximal heat flux conditions
