Two University student-built satellites, one about the size of a small tissue box and the other slightly larger than a loaf of bread, were launched into space from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early this morning.

The satellites, Radio Aurora Explorer-2 and M-Cubed, succeeded the student-built Radio Aurora Explorer-1, which launched from Alaska last November.

RAX-2 and M-Cubed will conduct tests for officials at NASA. The RAX-2 will collect data on plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere, an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The M-Cubed will test the Virtex-5 Field-Programmable Gate Array, an image-processing instrument.

Undergraduate and graduate students have been working under the direction of faculty adviser James Cutler, assistant professor of aerospace engineering and atmospheric, oceanic and space science, to design, build and test the satellites in North Campus labs. RAX-2 has been in development since January and the M-Cubed since 2007.

University alum Allison Craddock, engineering support manager for the RAX-2 team, said data collected from the RAX-2 will improve students' understanding of how satellite communication is commonly disrupted.

“We’re trying to figure out how to plan around (satellite disruptions) and understand which signals are getting through,” she said.

The RAX-2’s mission is similar to its predecessor, the RAX-1, which ceased activity prematurely due to power issues.

Rackham student Sara Spangelo, an RAX team member, wrote in an e-mail interview that the RAX-2, funded by the National Science Foundation, was built quickly as a result of what the team learned from the construction of the RAX-1. Craddock echoed Spangelo’s sentiment, praising the progress students made this year.

“(The RAX-2) is a reflection of students learning from experience, and implementing new, more inventive technologies firsthand,” Craddock wrote in an e-mail interview.

Students will be monitoring and “talking” to the satellites over the course of their missions to ensure their success, Engineering junior Matt Regan said. Leading the M-Cubed integrations and testing team, Regan was responsible for creating testing procedures for the one kilogram satellite prior to its launch.

Other RAX and M-Cubed teams will monitor the satellites’ communication capabilities and electrical systems while in orbit. Craddock said though team members were excited until the day of the launch, the next step of the process — analyzing how the satellites behave in orbit — is particularly nerve-racking.

“It’s not something we can just celebrate and kick back about,” she said.

While Regan and most of the M-Cubed and RAX-2 team members viewed the launch on a live stream from the François-Xavier Bagnoud Building on North Campus, Craddock and a handful of students traveled to California to watch the satellites depart aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.

“It’s really cool to see, because you know all of your work up to this point is getting on that rocket and getting flung out into space,” Craddock said. “There’s a real passion and dedication in our students.”