Irvine Students Launch Historic Second Cube Satellite Into Space!

Irvine students successfully launched a second cube satellite, Irvine02, into space aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket today, December 3, 2018, at 10:31 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base.  This historic launch comes on the heels of Irvine students’ first launch of Irvine01 on November 11. 

 

This is the first-time ever that students from the same school district have launched two cube satellites in one year and it is the largest satellite ridesharing mission ever launched from the U.S. with 64 satellites from 34 organizations representing 17 countries.  Additionally, it is the first time SpaceX has attempted to send one of its rocket boosters into space for a third time.

Irvine02 is a more advanced twin version of Irvine01, containing electric thrusters and a high power laser for rapid transmission of data down to the Earth ground station. Once in lower Earth orbit, the cube satellite will take photos of stars and other celestial objects.


To watch a playback of this morning’s launch, including pre-launch programming, visit https://www.spacex.com/webcast.  To watch just the launch, click here.

To read the whole story of how students at the Irvine Unified School District built these satellites and sent them to space, go here.

Also, as a reminder, NASA has its headquarters right here in Maryland, in Greenbelt. Here's a map showing the distance from Montgomery County to NASA headquarters, in case anyone's interested.