N.B. students shoot for the stars with provinces first-ever satellite slated to launch – New Brunswick [Video]

The work of hundreds of New Brunswick students will soon come to fruition, as a satellite they built and designed is slated to launch into space in the coming weeks.

“This is the first of its kind — the first satellite to be designed solely within New Brunswick,” said Troy Lavigne, the project’s co-principal investigator.

The bread-loaf-sized satellite named VIOLET, named after the provincial flower, will study the ionosphere, a layer of the earth’s atmosphere, with its solar panels and antenna.

Lavigne said they hope the project will help further their understanding of space weather.

VIOLET is the result of a collaboration between the University of New Brunswick, the Université de Moncton and the New Brunswick Community College.

Lavigne said with more than 300 students involved, the project is “one of the largest student-engaged projects at UNB.”

Joudi Al-Lathqani, a third-year mechanical engineering student at UNB, said she did not …