Students reach for the stars with launch of first satellite
Northeastern’s satellite will shoot into space aboard a SpaceX rocket on a mission to the International Space Station.
A satellite about the size of two Rubik’s cubes that was developed by Northeastern University students will launch into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket next month.
This will be the first launch for the Northeastern Satellite Laboratory, a newly formed student organization spun out of Aerospace NU, the university’s long-standing aerospace operations organization.
The launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida is set for April 8 as part of a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The satellite will be deployed from the ISS —which is approximately 250 miles above the Earth’s surface — to orbit for the better part of a year or so before burning as it falls back down to Earth.
“We’re demonstrating that this isn’t just a hypothetical — that Northeastern students can really do this,” said Ganesh Danke, a fourth-year computer science student and the president of the club.
The students have been working on the project for years as part of a smaller club within Aerospace NU, but decided to branch out as an independent organization as their ambitions have grown, explained Danke.
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“As we’ve grown larger and larger, we’ve really had the objective of having a permanent space at Northeastern — to be a permanent resource for spacecraft engineering and space-related research,” Danke noted, highlighting partnership with organizations such as The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
One of the primary objectives of next month’s launch, born out of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, is to showcase the satellite team’s engineering skills, Danke said.
It’s also been an exercise in collaboration.
Northeastern has partnered on the project with four other universities — California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Columbia University, University of California, Santa Cruz and Texas State University — which will have their own CubeSat satellites orbiting the Earth.
“The idea is that every university will launch its own satellite and they will operate [together] in what’s called a constellation,” communicating with one another using a new experimental network algorithm, said Danke.
Each satellite will also have its own experimental payloads aboard, used for testing.
For example, the Northeastern satellite will feature a camera to “demonstrate that it is capable of processing, storing and transmitting high-fidelity images with good quality,” said Danke.
“This will be a cool opportunity to not only demonstrate our functionalities at Northeastern, but also how we interact with our whole array of partners,” he added.
The project has also been critical training for the satellite club as it prepares to take on an even bigger mission next year, explained Josep Jornet, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the adviser of the club.
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If all goes according to plan, in 2027 the Northeastern lab will send another CubeSat satellite into space, but this time equip it with high-speed wireless communication components, called terahertz frequency radios, that are significantly faster than the radios found in a cellphone or laptop.
The goal of that project is to develop a whole network of such radios that could one day help widen high-speed satellite internet access to remote parts of the world and during environmental disasters.
“The way I see it is that this has been a great way for our students to learn the key building blocks of a small satellite and the very strict constraints and design processes they need to follow to launch this into orbit,” Jornet said. “So that gives me peace of mind next year when we launch our terahertz satellite. It’s like before you can drive a Ferrari, you probably want to practice a little bit with your Chevy.”
The club plans to hold an official launch party next month on the day the satellite is scheduled to launch.
“We’re planning on using the event as a huge commemoration of all our progress — setting that milestone of Northeastern [launching] its first spacecraft,” said Laura Teixeira, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and the organization’s mechanical chief.
Details about the party will be shared on the club’s Instagram and LinkedIn pages.
