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ASUSat1 goes first of 2000

Erica Frank of the State Press Lisa Tidwell (left) and Megan Gnagy (right) both aerospace engineering majors, excitedly watch the satellite launch from Vandenberg AFB via internet up-link. They both helped build the satellite which was delayed two weeks ago by a combination of failed ground equipment and low battery power.

By Loren Watson
State Press

The ASU satellite, the first satellite of the 'new millennium,' was finally launched Wednesday night--after a failed attempt two weeks ago and two prior postponements during the fall.

The craft, dubbed ASUSat1, was an ASU creation, the University's first totally student-built satellite to orbit Earth.

At 8:03 p.m., the Orbital Sciences Corp. Minuteman II/Pegasus XL rocket carrying the satellite as part of its payload, soared through the sky over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Thirty of the 400 students who designed, built and tested ASUSat1 watched the action at Vandenberg by 'Webcast' from the Engineering Research Center at ASU.

In the wake of a failed launch attempt on Jan. 14, two minutes before lift-off, the students were elated at success.

As they watched the rocket streak across the darkened sky in a blaze of light, Lisa Tidwell, an aerospace engineering junior exclaimed, "Tonight's the night...We knew it was going to happen!" Tidwell performed mechanics and structure functions on the satellite.

James McDonald, a computer science junior who works on flight software for the satellite, said, "So far everything we've heard is perfect. Now it's a waiting game."

The satellite will make its first orbital pass over campus at approximately 5:30 a.m. Thursday, McDonald said.

The craft will be functional for two years, passing about 500 miles over ASU six times each day, Tidwell said

The pictures and other data collected by the heat and light sensors on the satellite will be beamed down via radio signals to the ground station located at the University's Engineering Research Center.

"This is really, really an amazing experience," said Stan Seibert, a computer science sophomore and ASUSat1 software team leader. "It was about a year ago that James (McDonald) found me and said, 'hey, you want to work on a satellite?' I never thought I'd be here a year from then."

Loren Watson can be reached by e-mail at loren.watson@asu.edu.