University of Victoria launches second satellite as it vies to become hub for space industry

A satellite built by students and researchers at the University of Victoria has launched into orbit, where it will remain for the next decade.

Early Tuesday morning, the Marmot-Sat launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

It’s the second satellite the university has put into space, following the ORCASat in 2022.

“We are basically building on the momentum from that mission to establish the University of Victoria and the Centre for Aerospace Research (CfAR) to be a space hub on the West Coast,” said CfAR’s space division manager Levente Buzás.

The Marmot-Sat will assess the structure and composition of the ionosphere, which is an electrically charged layer of particles in Earth’s upper atmosphere. The data will help researchers understand how the ionosphere is changing in response to climate change.

“This will be one small step toward understanding, essentially, how do we study climate change? How do we understand it and how do we respond to it?” said CfAR director Afzal Suleman.

The shoebox-sized satellite is also flying a radio communications system. The design of that system is publicly available, so other research groups can build their own without starting from scratch.

UVic has plans to launch another satellite in 2027, then another in 2029.

The goal is to train the next generation of space engineers while establishing services for space-related businesses.

“Young graduates and students need cool things to work on for them to stay here,” Buzás said.

“We’re making sure that students who are trained in British Columbia and in Canada don’t go away and work in foreign countries and contribute to other countries’ economies.”

Suleman said his team is working to establish a commercial satellite testing facility by next year.

“The goal is eventually to have a program that not only trains students but also provides services to small and medium enterprises,” he said.