SwampSat, UF's first satellite, set to launch Tuesday from Virginia

November 18, 2013

WHAT:
SwampSat, the first picosatellite developed by researchers at the University of Florida College of Engineering, is scheduled to be launched into space.

WHEN:
Tuesday, Nov. 19, with a planned launch window from 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. EST

WHERE:
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia

WHO:
Norman Fitz-Coy, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the Advance Space Technology Research & Engineering Center, one of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers.

CONTACTS:
Monday – David Hahn, chairman, department of mechanical & aerospace engineering, 352-392-0807, dwhahn@ufl.edu

Tuesday – Norman Fitz-Coy, 352-392-1029, nfc@ufl.edu

ADDITIONAL INFO:
SwampSat is a 4-inch cube satellite — the first designed and built by UF’s Space Systems Group. Its mission will test an onboard miniaturized flight attitude stabilization system developed by UF engineers that is the first of its kind. It will be one of 29 satellites carried into space aboard a Minotaur I rocket for the U.S. Air Force ORS-3 mission — the most ever aboard a single rocket.

During its first lab test in April 2012, SwampSat’s first official transmitted message was, “The Gator Nation is everywhere.”

More information on the launch is available at:
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/MinotaurI_ORS-3/

SwampSat photo and video available at http://www.ufl.edu/2012/04/09/uf-reaches-into-space-with-design-of-tiny-satellite/