North Carolina’s first NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative team includes Johnston County students in grades 7-12 and two college students. The team hopes to research, build and launch a mini-satellite to space by 2023. Photo by Dunja Nasimento-Wilson
Johnston County students tackle out-of-this-world endeavor By Shannon Mann
Putting a man on the moon more than 50 years ago was just the beginning of what human imagination and engineering could do when it came to touching the stars. Today, America has established the Space Force for securing a future beyond Earth’s boundaries and NASA is preparing for missions to Mars, but space isn’t just for the military and professionals anymore as some Johnston County students are setting out to prove. In August, nearly two dozen middle and high school students from local public, charter and home schools came together via Zoom with the goal of researching, building and launching North Carolina’s first CubeSat.
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CubeSats are nanosatellites that meet NASA research objectives and compete for the opportunity to travel to lower Earth orbit aboard a future rocket launch. According to NASA’s website these tiny satellites were developed in 1999 by Cal Poly and Stanford Universities to provide a platform for education and space exploration. Since 1999, 41 states have launched a CubeSat. North Carolina is one that hasn’t, but last spring, coaches from a team in Florida reached out to SmithfieldSelma High School teacher Angela Jenkins to see if she might be interested in forming the first team from North Carolina.
“When I received the phone call about participating in NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, I immediately thought of my current and previous students who live, love and breathe everything NASA,” she said. “I imagined all the dreams they talked about and how the one thing they wanted was to participate in a space program. I couldn’t say no to this opportunity because I would be saying no to their dreams.” Jenkins’ initial group of students came from another STEM-based program, FIRST robotics. As a mentor to the FIRST Robotics Competition Team 6004 f(x) Robotics, based at Smithfield-Selma High School, and a coach to the FIRST
