On February 5 the team from the Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL) successfully underwent a pre-integration review conducted by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Air Force Research Lab (AFOSR/AFRL) which jointly run the University Nanosatellite Program.

The review ensures that the spacecraft is fully functional, at the system level, in a bench-top configuration. Now that the review is complete, final integration of the spacecraft components into the flight structure will begin. The next major milestone for Prox-1 is the pre-ship review, scheduled for May.

Prox-1 will be the first spacecraft built by Georgia Tech to be launched into space,” said Spencer, who served as a mission designer for the Mars Pathfinder during nearly 2 decades with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We’ve built components before, but this is a Georgia Tech vehicle.”

Researched and tested by Spencer and his students in AE’s Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL),  the Prox-1 spacecraft was chosen for the launch by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) during a system integration competition last year. The SSDL design trumped a field of 11 competitors.