The University’s first student-built satellite, launched from Alaska this past November, is successfully orbiting in space.

The satellite, called the Radio Aurora Explorer, or RAX, is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and tasked with investigating space anomalies called magnetic field-aligned irregularities. According to Rackham student Sara Spangelo, a member of the University's satellite development team, RAX has met many of its objectives.

“We had some great success early in the mission,” Spangelo said. “In particular, we received our first beacons from the spacecraft. That meant it was on, everything was fine and it was able to communicate.”

The team has been performing several experiments with the satellite, Spangelo said, to satisfy the goals of research scientist Hasan Bahcivan of SRI International in California, the co-principal investigator of the project. James Cutler, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and atmospheric, oceanic and space science at the University, is leading the student team, which is composed of undergraduate and graduate students.

Engineering senior Alex Sloboda, a member of the team, said there was a problem locating the craft early on in the mission, but the issue was quickly resolved.

“We couldn’t track it very well, so we couldn’t really communicate with it very well,” Sloboda said.

Spangelo said since confirming that the satellite was functioning properly within the first few weeks of launch, the team has had numerous accomplishments.

Tests completed from the RAX lab, which is housed in the François-Xavier Bagnoud building on North Campus, confirmed the satellite’s altitude determination sensors, GPS receiver and antenna were working.

Spangelo, who leads efforts to analyze the satellite’s GPS data, said confirming the receiver’s functionality was a “milestone” for the team.

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, it works, it works, it works!’ ” she said. “It was such a profound moment because we had struggled so much with the system on the ground.”

Aside from completing operations work for the current RAX mission, Sloboda said team members are planning to launch a second RAX as well as a satellite called M-Cubed, which is slated to go into orbit this fall.

The second RAX will have a similar mission as the first RAX, Sloboda said, but the second satellite will have “enhanced capabilities.”

“We will probably do some things to the (new) spacecraft that will allow us to do more science, or better science, or both,” he said.

The NASA-funded M-Cubed satellite, which members of the RAX team are working on with the University’s Student Space Systems Fabrication Lab, will have a slightly different aim, Sloboda said. However, the details aren’t finalized, and the M-Cubed satellite’s mission is still in its early development stages, he said.

Throughout the remainder of the RAX’s one-year mission, the team will continue to tackle any problems it faces, Spangelo said.

“There were some challenges addressing the functioning of the power system, which I’m currently studying,” she said. “We have to figure out the missing pieces about what’s happening.”

While the current mission is keeping the team busy, Sloboda said the students are anticipating the next two spacecrafts’ launches.

“We’ve got a lot more exiting things we want to do in space … we have a lot more exciting science we want to do,” he said.