Fairfax County students launch satellite engineered from scratch into space
Tuesday, it was a historic day for students at Thomas Jefferson High School from Science and Technology as students are launching a satellite they engineered from scratch into space. (TJSpace, FCPS)
VIENNA, Va. (7News) — Tuesday, it was a historic day for students at Thomas Jefferson High School from Science and Technology as students are launching a satellite they engineered from scratch into space.
The 2U CubeSat, called TJREVERB, was made by the students over the course of 7 years. According to Fairfax County Public Schools, the students designed the mission, created printed circuit boards, wired the components and developed the flight software, all on their own.
Tuesday, students are celebrating with a launch part as well as NASA and aerospace industry officials.
This is the second satellite this school has launched into space.
Lucas Riverio Senior at Thomas Jefferson High School from Science and Technology, “it’s incredible to see because we are high school student. most people who launch things like this have graduate degrees. To see a team like this put something like this together, it’s pretty amazing."
“Not only did they put it together but they made it work. space is really hard," Robotics Lab Director, Kristen Kucko. "Getting things into space and getting things to work in space is really hard. It’s like a 50/50 shot as to whether or not its going to work. If it actually does work, we are going to be very excited."
