The satellite is a small research satellite that involved more than 125 Montana State University students over five years.
Director of MSU's Space Science and Engineering Laboratory (SSEL) David Klumpar says the satellite is set to launch on February 23rd, and If all goes as planned, MSU's Explorer-1 (Prime) will blast off at 3:08:43 a.m. Mountain time aboard a Taurus XL rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Maria, California.
The satellite is already bolted onto the rocket, but the launch must occur within a specific 48-second window or it will be rescheduled for the next day.
Eleven MSU students, faculty and staff from the SSEL and Montana Space Grant Consortium will watch the launch in person.
MSU's satellite is one of only three university-built satellites that were chosen to fly on NASA's Glory mission.
The others come from the University of Colorado and several Kentucky universities that combined their efforts to become the Kentucky Space Consortium.
All three satellites are called CubeSats because they are aluminum cubes that measure about four inches on each side and weigh no more than 2.2 pounds (the standard size that allows the satellites to ride together in an enclosed box-called a P-POD that's attached to a rocket).
Explorer-1 [Prime] is expected to orbit the Earth about 15 years before reentering and disintegrating in the upper atmosphere.
MSU's satellite will replicate the scientific mission of the Explorer-1 mission, which was launched on Jan. 31, 1958.
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