‘This is a HUGE milestone.’ Virgin rocket launches Cal Poly mini satellite into space
A Cal Poly nanosatellite was successfully launched into space Sunday morning for a NASA mission, according to Virgin Orbit, the company tasked with carrying out the initiative.
The launch was originally scheduled to happen on Wednesday, Jan. 13, but was delayed because Virgin Orbit “just had a bit more work (final checkouts, etc.) to complete, and we didn’t want to rush anything,” Kendall Russell, communications director for the company, wrote in an email to The Tribune.
The ExoCube 2 is a CubeSat device, a miniaturized satellite that was built over several years by a group of 50 Cal Poly students.
The device was launched alongside nine other tiny, NASA-sponsored satellites on the space agency’s next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites mission, or ELaNa for short. ELaNa is an initiative created by NASA that intends to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.
The launched was carried out by Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket shot from the company’s Cosmic Girl plane — a craft built and operated by the private company to allow government agencies and private companies to launch small satellites into orbit “on your own schedule,” according to the company’s website.
The Virgin Orbit plane took off from the Mohave Air and Space port at approximately 10:41 a.m. Sunday.
“Wanted to dwell for a moment on the fact that we’ve just handed off control of the entire launch system to the four teammates on Cosmic Girl right now,” Virgin Orbit tweeted during the event. “They’re literally the only people in the world trained and qualified to do this exact job — a unique experience for sure!”
At about 11:39 a.m., the Virgin Orbit plane released its LauncherOne rocket that held the miniaturized satellites just south of the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, according to Virgin Orbit.
“This is a HUGE milestone, and the furthest our rocket has flown yet,” the company wrote via Twitter.
Ten minutes later, LauncherOne reached Earth’s orbit.
“Everyone on the team who is not in mission control right now is going absolutely bonkers,” Virgin Orbit tweeted. “Even the folks on comms are trying really hard not to sound too excited.”
Virgin Orbit confirmed at 1:48 p.m. that the command to release the satellites was successfully issued as planned.
And at 2:28 p.m., Virgin Orbit announced that the CubeSat satellites were released into Earth’s thin exosphere.
“We are so, so proud to say that LauncherOne has now completed its first mission to space, carrying 9 CubeSat missions into Low Earth Orbit for our friends @NASA,” the company tweeted on Sunday.
Cal Poly CubeSat part of NASA mission
When the ExoCube 2 is in orbit in the exosphere at about 370 miles above sea level, students on the ground will use Cal Poly’s CubeSat Lab station to download scientific data from the satellite and share it with their counterparts at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois.
Those two universities are responsible for interpreting the data that comes from the satellite.
The data will help scientists expand their knowledge on the composition and current state of activity in the exosphere atmosphere. Additionally, the data will be useful in better predicting space weather phenomena in order to forecast the potential effects of ions on satellite communications and spacecraft performance.
The ExoCube 2 is Cal Poly’s 12th CubeSat device. It’s a relaunch and redesign of the original ExoCube, which launched in early 2015 but suffered antenna problems.
Cal Poly’s last ELaNa satellite was LEO, or Launch Environment Observer, a two-unit CubeSat that launched in June 2019 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
According to NASA, CubeSats are designed to be about 4 inches cubed. “CubeSats can be built in a single unit, or combined in units of two, three or six,” the space agency said. “A single unit must weigh less than 1.33 kilograms, or 3 pounds.”
The other nine CubeSats on this mission were designed and built by seven other universities in the United States, as well as one NASA center. They include satellites from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Colorado, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee; University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Louisiana and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
“The journey to this launch has been long and challenging,” Scott Higginbotham, ELaNa 20 mission manager, said in a Cal Poly news release. “Our CubeSat developers have invested much of themselves in their spacecraft, and I know they’ll all be thrilled to see them fly later this month.”
