SU physics students selected for Virginia Space ThinSat Launch

SALISBURY, Md. – Three students from Salisbury University are preparing for takeoff as they get ready to take on their coolest homework assignment yet. School officials say these juniors will get the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to design and build a satellite that will be launched on a rocket headed to the International Space Station. The college students say they were chosen to take on this challenge by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority’s ThinSat program. They tell us they’ve just finished the research they need to do to create the satellite that will go into space, and now they’re moving forward to the engineering phase.

“We’ll be running our main objective which is looking at how the weather affects earths magnetic field and we’ll also be looking at our secondary objective looking at a new type of aurora calling the aurora Steve and looking to make more observations since it’s only been studied since last year,” said student Ian McCann.

The students are expected to launch their creation by November of next year.