9 tiny satellites built by Israeli students blast off into space

Nine miniature satellites built by Israeli high school students were sent into space this morning on board a SpaceX rocket.

This is the second batch of research satellites built by Israeli students and sent into space, including the first Druze-built satellite, made by students in Yarka.

Some 300 students from Jewish, Arab and Druze communities took part in the project, titled Tevel 2.

The 10x10x10 centimeter cube-shaped satellites contain scientific and communications instruments that will spend some three years in a 500-kilometer (300-mile) orbit.

“With these nine satellites, we’ve reached a total of 20 Israeli student-built satellites — an unparalleled achievement worldwide,” Prof. Meir Ariel, head of the Space Engineering Center at Tel Aviv University, told the Davidson Institute website.

“There are occasional high school student projects here and there, but nothing comes close to this scale,” he said. “The students do everything: they write the satellite’s software, integrate the hardware components, conduct all the system tests and experiments, and operate the satellites in space.”

Israeli students work on miniature satellites to be sent into space under the Tevel 2 program (Ronen Horesh/GPO)

He said the experiments will focus, among other things, on the effects of cosmic radiation on computer systems.

A Hebrew video about the project can be watched here.