Launch sends UGA’s first research satellite into space
October 2, 2020
The Antares rocket, which is carrying UGA’s first research satellite, launched at the Wallops Facility in Virginia. (Courtesy of NASA)
A student-led effort to get the University of Georgia’s first research satellite into space is finally a success. It took a few delays, but the small satellite SPOC, short for Spectral Ocean Color, had liftoff aboard an Antares rocket from the Wallops Facility in Virginia on Friday night, Oct. 2.
It docked with the International Space Station on Monday morning and will deploy in a few weeks.
“This is everything,” said Hollis Neel, a UGA graduate and co-founder of UGA’s Small Satellite Research Lab, who watched the launch virtually. “This was the goal that a bunch of us had years ago, which was to send something into space.”