CubeSat specification came out of the academic world in the late 1990s. Bob Twiggs, then at Stanford University and
now at Morehead State University, was frustrated by long delays ... more primary payloads and require ballast to balance the rocket. CubeSats, reasoned
Mr Twiggs, could take the place of some of this ballast, so long as they did not jeopardise ... main mission. The
optimum size Mr Twiggs came up with was based on a box used to display Beanie Babies. Later, with Jordi Puig-Suari of
California Polytechnic State University