TXST-developed flight software and spacecraft assembly power satellites deployed from the International Space Station

Researchers and students at the Texas State University Space Lab developed flight software and assembled spacecraft for a mission that successfully deployed four satellites from the International Space Station (ISS). Within days of deployment, the TXST team established communication with two of the spacecraft and transmitted its first confirmed command, marking another milestone for the university's growing space research program.

The deployment is part of the PROVES Five initiative, a collaborative mission involving TXST, Columbia University, UC Santa Cruz, Northeastern University, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Participating universities design and operate their own satellites using a shared spacecraft platform developed by Cal Poly Pomona’s Bronco Space team.

The four satellites currently in orbit are operated by Columbia University, UC Santa Cruz, Northeastern University, and Harvard University. Satellites were launched to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Commercial Resupply Services-35 mission on April 11 before deploying into low Earth orbit on July 2. 

Nate Gay, software lead for the TXST team, emphasized the stakes of developing flight software for a satellite mission.

“If the structure is a spacecraft’s bones and the electronics are its nervous system, flight software is the mind,” Gay said. “It is what actually decides and acts. A single bad decision can end a mission, so we build with the same rigor you would expect from any safety-critical industry: automated testing, hardware-in-the-loop verification, and code review, all before a line of code reaches orbit. That same discipline is also what makes the TXST Space Lab a great place to learn.”

The collaboration included SpaceX, NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (which supported open-source software development) and Voyager Technologies (which coordinated activities among NASA and the participating universities). The project brought together faculty, students, and alumni from multiple disciplines.  

“Satellites are complex instruments. They’re like puzzles, and the developers’ goal is to fit the pieces together to make a spacecraft that fits the mission’s needs,” said Evan Jellison, M.S., assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Physics and Space Lab coordinator. “Collaborating with other universities allows everyone to bring to the table what they’re best at and share the burden of making the mission a success.”

The TXST team included:

• Principal investigator: Blagoy Rangelov, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Physics
• Space Lab coordinator: Evan Jellison, M.S., assistant professor of instruction, Department of Physics
• Software lead: Nate Gay, undergraduate mathematics student
• Software team member: Saidi Adams, undergraduate electrical engineering student
• Engineer: Jasmine Rawles, undergraduate mechanical engineering student
• Engineer and mission modeler: Johnny McCaskill, undergraduate student in mathematics, physics, and computer science
• Engineer: Chase Blount, alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in physics 

The deployment demonstrates the reliability of TXST technology in orbit and gives the Space Lab critical experience ahead of the university’s first satellite launch later this year.

"Every command we send to these spacecraft, and every packet we get back, is an operational experience no classroom can replicate,” Rangelov said. “When we launch our own satellite later this year, we won't be doing it for the first time — and for a young space program, that changes everything about how fast we can grow."

The successful deployment signals the arrival of an emerging university space program ready to support larger missions, deepen partnerships, and expand TXST’s role in space research.