Since January, the finalists have worked on their CubeSat (cube satellite) prototypes and refined their missions with support from the Phase 2 mentors and subject matter experts. The career and technical education (CTE) challenge has helped the high school students build a range of skills for future careers — and inspired teachers to create additional interdisciplinary CTE offerings.

From April 23 to 28, the five teams will launch their prototypes into the sky and carry out their missions. Read on for details about the flight events, what the students will be studying, and how to follow along live.

Friday, April 23

Opelika High School (Opelika, Alabama) in collaboration with Columbus High School and Northside High School (Columbus, Georgia)
Launch time: 9:00 a.m. CT / 10:00 a.m. ET
Vehicle: High-altitude balloon
Mission: Collect performance data for a new type of core material used in NASA-grade fluxgate magnetometers, which are used to study Earth’s changing magnetic field.
Follow the flight path live and watch the livestream.

Saturday, April 24

Princeton High School (Princeton, New Jersey) in collaboration with Montgomery High School (Skillman, New Jersey)
Launch time: 11:00 a.m. ET
Vehicle: High-altitude balloon
Mission: Optimize space missions by examining topics such as atmospheric pressure density and habitable planetary environments. 
Watch the livestream.

Tuesday, April 27

Freeport High School (Freeport, New York)
Launch time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Vehicle: Drone
Mission: Measure Earth’s surface temperature to study the differences in heat absorption and retention between urban and rural areas.

Wednesday, April 28

Mooresville High School (Mooresville, North Carolina)
Launch time: 9:00 a.m. ET
Vehicle: Drone or weather balloon
Mission: Study the effect of their town’s population growth on air quality, land use, and temperature.
Watch the livestream.

Anderson Clark Magnet High School (La Crescenta, California)
Launch time: 1:00 p.m PT / 4:00 p.m. ET
Vehicle: Balloon and drone
Mission: Study whether local encampments are in high-risk wildfire areas, with the goal of helping the local fire department to save lives of people without housing.

Meet the teams at the CubeSat Developers Workshop

On Thursday, April 29, at 5:00 p.m. ET, U.S. Department of Education Program Specialist Albert Palacios will moderate a panel discussion with the five finalists. The teams will discuss their missions, what they learned from the flight events, and how participating in the national challenge has impacted them. Register for free to watch the virtual session.

Begin your own CubeSat project

CubeSat prototypes are an accessible learning tool for students of all grade levels — no prior experience required. CTE Mission: CubeSat encourages interested students and teachers everywhere to start their own CubeSat projects by using the challenge resource hub. The hub offers curated educational resources, including virtual sessions with experts from academia, government, and industry.

Subscribe to the CTE Mission: CubeSat newsletter and follow Ed Prizes on Twitter to follow along with Flight Week and receive other Phase 2 updates.