Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – June.30.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** Florida high school student satellite, StangSat, reaches orbit via the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch last week. Students at Merritt Island High School (MIHS) designed and built the CubeSat. A local TV news report: High-schoolers sent cube satellite into space aboard Falcon Heavy – WOFL

More at

MIHS students working on StangSat
“Merritt Island High School students are photographed at the Kennedy Space Center with StangSat – a cube satellite (CubeSat) that was built and developed by students at the school. StangSat [launched] on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of the Department of Defense Space Test Program-2 mission, managed by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center… Credits: NASA/Shaun Daly”
** Georgia Tech’s Prox-1 with LightSail-2 was successfully put into orbit by the Falcon Heavy as well. Prox-1 was built by Georgia Tech students with funding from the University Nanosat Program (UNP) and LightSail-2 was built by a team led by Ecliptic Enterprises and funded by the Planetary Society.

The sail’s cubesat will be ejected from Prox-1 this week:

LightSail 2 team members will soon converge at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California, where the spacecraft’s mission control is located. Once LightSail 2 is released from Prox-1 on 2 July, the team will spend several days checking out the CubeSat’s systems before commanding its dual-sided solar panels to deploy. Following that, the spacecraft’s solar sails will be deployed, roughly 2 weeks in total from launch day.

** Students at Cal State Poly at San Luis Obispo were involved closely with LightSail-2 and with LEO (Launch Environment Observer) cubesat also on board the FH:

The LightSail-2 mission will rely on the ground station at CalPoly SLO.

** Students at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi are building MYSAT-2, with the support of Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), for launch on a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft in 2020:  Khalifa University’s MYSAT-2 CUbeSat completes critical design review milestone – ZAWYA

Designed and built by a team of nine students pursuing a Master’s degree with Space Systems and Technology Concentration, MYSAT-2 features significant upgrades from MYSAT-1. Its primary mission is to enable students to design, implement, and test new Attitude Determination and Control (ADC) Algorithms, developed by the Khalifa University students. The algorithms help determine a CubeSat’s orientation in space, and are estimated to be 15 to 20 percent more power-efficient, in comparison with similar algorithms implemented on other spacecrafts. If successful, the new algorithms will establish the UAE as a contributor to the global space industry.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-181 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • AO-85 Update: Do Not Access While in Eclipse
  • Candidates for the AMSAT Board of Directors Announced
  • PSAT Successfully Launched on Falcon Heavy STP-2
  • Update: PSAT2 is coming to Northern Latitudes!
  • Updated TLE’s and Analysis Tools for BIRDS-3
  • Chinese Lunar Satellite DSLWP-B and the July 2 Solar Eclipse
  • Thailand JAISAT-1 Satellite to Launch on July 5, 2019
  • ARISS International Delegates Meet in Montreal
  • European Astro Pi Challenge Winners Announced
  • New Release of G0KLA Tracker
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

See also Amateur radio satellites launch on SpaceX STP-2 mission | AMSAT-UK

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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