A CubeSat — or small satellite — designed by Wichita State will be launched into low Earth orbit by NASA on May 3.
There will be a watch party on Sunday in Jabara Hall, room 127, at 1:30 a.m.
The CubSat is a solar detector prototype that will help scientists measure rates of false signals in space, and potentially prepare scientists for future missions. The satellite was built by NanoAvionics of Lithuania and will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The project has been led by Nickolas Solomey, a professor of mathematics, statistics and physics. Multiple other faculty members in physics and the College of Engineering and 36 students have helped with the project.
In 2017, WSU first received funding for this project — called Solar Neutrino Astro-Particle Physic CubeSat — and in 2021, received a grant from NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
Other entities that have worked on the project include NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center & The National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and South Dakota State University.