(WFXR) – Saturday was an exciting day for NASA as well as for students at Virginia Tech.
Saturday’s launch of the Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-15 will feature a robotic resupply mission to the International Space Station from Wallops Island.
The rocket carries approximately 8,200 pounds of cargo that include scientific investigations, crew supplies, and hardware. In additionally it will carry 30 small student satellites.
Among those satellites is Virginia Tech’s student-built “ThickSat” Satellite.
“We have put a lot of time, like all of us together for, the past year in a half. It was a lot of long nights. I think we are just excited to see it go,” said Ian Harnett, Virginia Tech student.
Over the past two years, a team of undergrad and graduate students in the College of Engineering and College of Science developed the satellite.
The “ThickSat” will collect data from the earth’s atmosphere, known as the extreme low earth orbit, about five to seven days before burning up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.
Watch the special live-stream of the event above which features the team of Virginia Tech students and faculty advisors behind the ThickSat satellite. The event also describes how the satellite will impact future spaceflight missions and what the ThickSat satellite will be doing.
