The announcement was made at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, a short drive from the company's Centennial, Colorado headquarters. "I have made it a personal goal to make space much more accessible for everyone," Bruno said, before revealing the program’s first free flight had been awarded to the University of Colorado Boulder.

Initially, ULA will offer universities six CubeSat slots on two Atlas V flights starting in 2017, with opportunities eventually expected on nearly every launch. The program will also extend to the company’s new Vulcan rocket.

A ULA infographic showed the CubeSat deployer would be attached to the rocket's Centaur upper stage via the Aft Bulkhead Carrier, or ABC. Previous CubeSat carriers, such as the Naval Postgraduate School CubeSat Launcher, NPSCuL, have used this same configuration. The NPSCuL also has a carrying capacity of 24 one-unit CubeSats. ULA did not specify whether it intends to use the same deployer.