Rocket launches from Wallops Island with student-inspired satellites from Richmond-area schools

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1. UVa's first spacecraft is en route to the International Space Station

UVa's first spacecraft is en route to the International Space Station
BY RUTH SERVEN SMITH 17 hrs ago
2 min to read

The University of Virginia’s first spacecraft began its trip to the International Space Station on Wednesday afternoon. ... The small cube, built under the direction of fourth-year student Erin Puckette, launched from Wallops Island aboard a Northrop Grumman rocket. ... “It has been a long time coming,” Puckette said Monday.

The rocket’s cargo vehicle, which contains other CubeSats built by Old Dominion University, Virginia Tech and universities and high schools in other states, will rendezvous with the International Space Station. Later this summer, space station crew members plan to deploy the CubeSats of UVa, ODU and Virginia Tech into space as part of a “constellation” that will study the effects of orbit on satellites.

“This is the first spacecraft the University of Virginia has developed, and the first one this class has created,” said Chris Goyne, a mechanical and engineering professor who has mentored students throughout the three-year effort. “It’s quite advanced work for fourth-years.”

NASA began the CubeSat Launch Initiative as part of an effort to help universities, high schools and nonprofits send small payload satellites — each typically 10-by-10-by-10 centimeters, with roughly the volume and weight of a quart of milk — to space. If an organization can prove a project will benefit NASA’s scientific and technological goals, NASA helps provide funding and resources.
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