Spacecraft Control Gives New Meaning to Satellite Campus

About an hour and a half after a rocket blasted into space two weeks ago from Wallops Island, Virginia, a Mission Controller heard the satellite's radio beacon, on its first orbit around the earth.

The mission controller wasn't a NASA Engineer in Houston, Texas, but a college student standing on the roof of a building at Santa Clara University with handheld antenna.

"It was very surprising actually, hearing it on the very first pass and getting some data down," said graduate student Jose Acain.

For the second time in three years, students at SCU are serving as mission controllers for a NASA science satellite. They work out of a small room on the campus located about two hours drive from Sacramento. "Right now, it's round-the-clock operations," said Acain.

The satellite beacon, coming through the speaker of a ham radio receiver, sounded like an old computer dial-up modem. But it was a beautiful sound to students, because it told them the satellite was in orbit and working properly.

PharmaSat is a $2 million satellite that's only about the size of a loaf of bread. Data collected from the satellite will eventually help scientists develop new medicines to astronauts who fall ill during space missions.

The science experiments were completed in the first five days after launch. Santa Clara students successfully downlinked the science data, using two large dish antennas on the roof of the university's Bannon Engineering Building. "We were in a situation where I had students on console, and NASA engineers saying 'We want data, we want data'," said SCU professor Chris Kitts. "And we got lucky," said Kitts. "We got it (science data) the first time around and everybody was happy. A giant collective sigh of relief."

NASA scientists were thrilled with the performance of the satellite and the student mission controllers. Santa Clara University students who are taking a class called "Intro To Satellite Operations" will be able to command and control the satellite while it continues to operate in orbit for the next six months to two years.

Eventually gravity will pull it back into the earth's atmosphere. The satellite will most likely become burnt toast in a fiery re-entry.

In the meantime, SCU students are getting a lesson that is out of this world.

"My mom still doesn't believe that I talk to satellites!" said Acain.

Look for Dale's full video report on the Satellite Campus, Sunday June 6, on News10 at 6 p.m.

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