Blast off: NASA launches CAPE-2 satellite

Cheers erupted in the CAPE-2 lab in Madison Hall when the Minotaur 1 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Island, Va., facility at about 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

The launch sent the second small satellite designed and built by UL Lafayette students into space.

After the clapping, congratulatory exchanges and high-fives ended, a small group of students headed for their control stations, where they received a signal that let them know the satellite was where it should be: in orbit about 225 miles above Earth.

The CubeSat, a communication device that weighs about 2 pounds, zips around the globe at about 17,000 mph. That’s about once every 90 minutes.
- See more at: http://www.louisiana.edu/news-events/news/20131120/blast-nasa-launches-c...