UND kicks off launch event for North Dakota’s first satellite.

The Space Studies Department is kicking off the North Dakota openOrbiter satellite program with an information event and high altitude balloon launch Sunday, Oct. 14, starting at 9 a.m. The event is open to the public and consists of an open house and poster session in Clifford Hall followed by the launch of the balloon at 11 a.m. outside Clifford.

OpenOrbiter is in development and will be North Dakota’s first ever designed, constructed satellite by UND students.

The balloon will be launched to the edge of space carrying experiments to prepare for the development of the satellite.  The exercise will provide the openOrbiter team with the chance to gain hands on experience with communications equipment and operating payloads.

“OpenOrbiter is a new and exciting adventure that will engage the university and community in the spirit of exploration on the back of a small but highly capable spacecraft,” said Josh Berk, a master’s student in UND’s Space Studies Department, “Technologies developed during the project will benefit the region through the creation of a regional space development industry.”

The openOrbiter team includes nearly 300 students and faculty members at UND. OpenOrbiter will be developed and launched by NASA to low- Earth orbit. The satellite is based on a new architecture developed at UND to reduce the development costs at other universities, small businesses and federal agencies.