The MESAT-1 satellite when it was under development and being shown to a visiting group of high school students who were involved in the design of the satellite. Photo courtesy of the University of Maine
A private aerospace company is standing down from its attempt to carry Maine’s first satellite into orbit, even after fixing the faulty ground support equipment that prompted engineers to scrub the scheduled launch of its Alpha rocket Tuesday morning with just 8 seconds to go before liftoff.
Firefly Aerospace took to social media Tuesday to announce it had repaired the ground support problem. The Alpha rocket and its payload, including Maine’s small research satellite MESAT-1, were ready to be deployed and a new launch window was to begin at 12:03 a.m. Wednesday. But the company said in a social media post Tuesday evening that it has decided “to give the team more time to evaluate data and test systems from the first attempt.”
A new launch window has not yet been determined.
Ali Abedi, the vice president for research at the University of Maine who leads the UMaine Space Initiative and oversaw the MESAT-1 project, said Tuesday he was disappointed, but noted that this wasn’t the first time the project has been delayed. Its original launch date was in 2022.
“Fingers crossed for tonight,” Abedi said. “Space and rocket science is hard.”
MESAT-1 is one of eight nano-satellites scheduled to hitch a ride into space on the Firefly rocket. Built by Maine college students, MESAT-1 will collect climate data for Maine students studying urban heat islands, phytoplankton and harmful algae blooms.
Of course, the rocket has to make it into space – all the way – before the satellites can go to work. The last Firefly Alpha mission failed to deliver its payload satellite into the correct orbit because of a software glitch. NASA categorizes the rocket as high risk because it is new.
At first, the livestreamed Tuesday morning launch looked and sounded good despite the heavy fog at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission countdown reached T minus 8 seconds when the first abort call came through. It was described as a “ground support issue.”
The engineers decided to try squeezing another launch attempt into the same 30-minute launch window, but 9 minutes into that countdown, at T minus 10 minutes and 12 seconds, a second abort call was made and that launch attempt was officially scrubbed.
The MESAT-1 satellite when it was under development and being shown to a visiting group of high school students who were involved in the design of the satellite. Photo courtesy of the University of Maine
Once deployed, MESAT-1 will circle the Earth in a 350-mile-high polar orbit at a speed of about 17,000 mph for up to two years. The stacked cubes are covered by antennae wires and a solar panel on one side and feature four multispectral cameras that measure different wavelengths of light.
The data will be relayed to the University of Maine ground station directly or through a network of ham radio operators around the world who will send it to Orono for processing. The data will then be shared with Falmouth High School, Fryeburg Academy and Saco Middle School.
These schools won a contest to design the satellite’s scientific mission back in 2019.
Falmouth will use the data to investigate early detection of harmful algae blooms. Fryeburg Academy will assess coastal water quality properties, such as turbidity and phytoplankton concentration. Saco Middle School will study how reflected light impacts the local temperature in urban and rural areas.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Modify your screen name
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.