FalconSAT is the United States Air Force Academy 's (USAFA) small satellite engineering program. Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under the direction of the Department of Astronautics.

In the U.S. Air Force Academy Department of Astronautics FalconSAT program, cadets learn space by doing space through real-world satellite development and operations. Cadets design, analyze, build, test and operate small satellites hosting technology experiments funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory.

USAFA’s FalconSAT-8 satellite is among the experimental payloads hitching a ride on a United Launch Alliance rocket. UPDATE: Launch time was scheduled for 8:24 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, but threatening weather delayed the launch to Sunday.

FalconGOLD was the first satellite designed and built at the Academy. The mission was a partnership between the Academy and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS). Cadets were responsible for building the spacecraft while students at …

FalconSAT-3 was built in 2005 and 2006 by cadets and faculty in the Space Systems Research Center at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. It is the fourth in a series of small satellites designed, built and operated there as part of a capstone course and which brings together about 30 cadets each year from several different ...

Aug 29, 2014 · FalconSAT-7 is a 3U CubeSat nanosatellite measuring just 30 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm with a mass of ~ 5 kg. The satellite is built on a NRO supplied Colony-II 3U CubeSat built by Boeing. The payload is Peregrine: the world's first spaceborne membrane telescope.

FalconSat-3 is the 3rd in a series of United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) student-built microsatellites. Its primary mission was to test a gravity gradient boom for stabilization of the spacecraft in the Z direction, with magnetorquers control the rotation about the Z axis.

Nov 22, 2023 · When a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Nov. 11, among the more than 100 satellites it launched into orbit was one designed, built, and operated by Air Force Academy cadets.

Cadets and staff at the Air Force Academy in collaboration with others at NASA, AFIT and AFRL and with support from the NRO and DARPA, are constructing FalconSat-7: a 3U CubeSat solar observatory in low Earth orbit. The science payload is Peregrine: an innovative 0.2m diameter membrane primary occupying a mere 1.5U volume (Fig.

USA-221, also known as FalconSat-5, is an American military minisatellite, which was launched in 2010. The fifth FalconSat spacecraft to be launched, it carries four technology development and ionospheric research experiments.