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

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2. Satellite built by Virginia Tech undergraduates ready for launch into space

Satellite built by Virginia Tech undergraduates ready for launch into space
by Jama Green for VT News
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Apr 16, 2019



(From left) Madison Brodnax , senior majoring in computer engineering, and Nick Angle, junior majoring in physics, conduct a final inspection of the Ceres satellite prior to integration at NanoRacks. The university-built satellites have been named after the Roman goddesses on the back of the Virginia State Seal. Virginia Tech selected Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. Photo courtesy of ODU Batten College of Engineering and Technology.

In a giant leap for Virginia Tech, the first satellite built by undergraduate students is scheduled to be launched into space on April 17, 2019.

One small step closer to reaching space, a group of Virginia Tech undergraduate students recently delivered their small satellite to Houston to be incorporated into NanoRacks' commercially developed CubeSat deployer. Virginia Tech's satellite, along with two satellites from other Virginia universities, is scheduled to launch on the payload section of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket and then will be headed to the International Space Station.

Over the last several years, an interdisciplinary team of 50 undergraduate students from the College of Engineering and the College of Science developed Virginia Tech's CubeSat at the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research, known as (Space@VT). The project has provided students from aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and physics with crucial hands-on mission experience in both spacecraft design and manufacturing, all working together to make the mission a reality.

The initiative began in June 2016 as part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation, a collaborative effort between the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and four of its member universities: Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, and Hampton University. The project's mission is to obtain measurements of the properties of the Earth's atmosphere in low earth orbit. As the orbits of the satellites decay due to atmospheric drag, the satellite instruments will quantify atmospheric density.
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Local News
Virginia Tech students watch as rocket blasts off from Wallops Island
By: Kara Thompson
Posted: Apr 17, 2019 10:39 PM EDT

Updated: Apr 17, 2019 10:39 PM EDT

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket blasted off Wednesday afternoon from Wallops Island. Virginia Tech students got to watch as one of the school's satellites, along with two satellites from other Virginia universities, was launched into space. Now it's headed to the International Space Station.

For the past several years, a team of 50 undergraduate students from the College of Engineering and the College of Science developed Virginia Tech's CubeSat at the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research.

The initiative began in June 2016 as part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation, a collaborative effort between the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and four of its member universities: Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, and Hampton University.

The 7,600-pound (3,450-kilogram) load on the rocket also includes three free-flying robots to be tested as astronaut helpers, 40 black lab mice and 63 tiny student-research satellites.

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