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

[TexasTowelie]

WALLOPS ISLAND — A spacecraft carrying 40 mice, two flying robots and the dreams of hundreds of science students is flying to its scheduled rendezvous with the International Space Station after a flawless launch from a state-owned regional spaceport here on Wednesday afternoon.

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft separated from the Antares rocket nine minutes after the 4:46 p.m. launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, based at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on this barrier island along Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The spacecraft, named after U.S. astronaut Roger Chaffee, is scheduled to dock with the space station orbiting Earth early Friday.

Before approaching the space station, Cygnus will deploy 63 miniature satellites, called ThinSats, that students in Virginia and other states helped to design for an inaugural experiment for bringing huge amounts of data from the Earth’s outer atmosphere into classrooms across the state and country.

Hundreds of students, their teachers and families gathered on Wallops Island to witness the launch, representing the 11th and final mission to resupply the space station under the first of two contracts between NASA and Northrop Grumman; all but one of the missions launched from Wallops. The first mission of a second contract is scheduled for this fall.

Read more: https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/rocket-launches-from-wallops-island-with-student-inspired-satellites-from/article_670dc2a2-f973-5b05-a19e-6d5dd1a7b197.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

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.
....

[mahatmakanejeeves]

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.
....

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.

Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Wise, Virginia, students' "ThinSats" launched into space on the Antares rocket.

Last year I met some really talented students from Wise, VA who showed me the tiny remote sensing satellites they built in science class. Today their “ThinSats” were launched into space on the Antares rocket. Congratulations to these students and the whole @NASA_Wallops team!

Link to tweet