TXST launches first-ever satellite into space

Texas State is making history with the university's very first satellite launch. The student-built satellite launched Tuesday morning aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, part of a NASA mission. Fox 7 Austin's Dominique Leigh met with a student who played a role in the launch. This is a replica of a satellite currently in outer space. Now, this was modeled and engineered by Texas State students. And while this was a mission for NASA, for Texas State students, their mission is just getting started. the first ever cube satellite engineered by Texas State students Probes Maya launched into space on Tuesday it was just really cool whenever I joined knowing that like all the work I was putting in would eventually be able to go into space, Saiedi Adams and several other Texas State students have been working as a team for the past year been collaborating with SpaceX and NASA creating a satellite to detect gamma rays we wanted to have the gamma radiation sensor to be able to detect how our atmosphere protects us from gamma radiation. Blagoje Rangilov, an associate physics professor, tells me this is a huge stepping stone for the university considering they don't even have an aerospace program. It is this kind of a small thingy that it's going to fly or will be flying through space once it's launched from the International Space Station. Once launched from the station, Probes Maya will communicate to the university ground station sending back valuable data. But what's truly valuable about this experience are the opportunities opening up for the students involved. I've been able to travel around through this whole summer, through internships I got through this lab, and just all the opportunities that this whole process and this project has opened up has been truly amazing. And I hope we can keep it going and be able to increase those opportunities for even more people. The satellite is going to deploy into orbit in about three to four weeks, and it'll be controlled by Texas State students at this control board at Texas State's ground command. Fox 7 Austin, Dominique Leigh.