By NPS Public Affairs 

Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG) Chair Dr. Rudy Panholzer, left, and Research Associate Dan Sakoda stand near one of several structural pieces to NPSAT1 in the university's clean room in Bullard Hall, Jan. 11. The satellite is the product of years of student and faculty research and will carry several experiments from both NPS and the Naval Research Laboratory into orbit when it launches on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Center, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 15, 2016.
 
Panholzer says the primary motivation behind the creation of NPSAT1 was education, with some 40 theses and thousands of hours of student and faculty research contributing to the development of the satellite.
 
"We are not here to build satellites, but the satellite is a nice byproduct of the educational process … We designed it, built it and are testing it in house. We also developed the lab around it, and developed the curriculum that led to its completion," explained Panholzer proudly, who says the development of a functioning satellite, performing real science in space, makes the process that much more valuable to his students.
 
"It is very important that students realize that engineering is not just about PowerPoint [presentations] and white boards. That stuff may work in the classroom, but it does not necessarily work in the real world," he stressed.
 
NPSAT1 is being launched in conjunction with the Department of Defense's Space Test Program (STP), which coordinates access to space for research purposes for universities and DOD. And while the development of NPSAT1 is quite an accomplishment, it will not be the first NPS-developed satellite launched into orbit. In 1998, NASA astronaut and former U.S. Senator John Glenn launched NPS' first satellite, the Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT), from the Space Shuttle Discovery.