Structure & power
A custom aluminum 2U frame houses the subsystem stack. Body-mounted solar panels and protected lithium-ion batteries support the ISS-deployment mission profile.
Satellite Team
HUAC’s Satellite Team designs, builds, tests, and operates CubeSats. Its first spacecraft, HUCSat, is a 2U research satellite testing a shape-memory-alloy mechanism for reorienting a deployable solar-panel platform.
HUCSat Tracker
Follow the real-time position of HUCSat using the satellite tracker developed by the team.
3D ORBIT
APPROACH DATA
Next pass over Harvard
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Upcoming passes
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NEXT PASS SKY PLOT
Positions are computed live in your browser from HUCSat's latest orbital elements (NORAD 69794, via CelesTrak). Passes count once HUCSat climbs above 30° elevation at our ground station on the SEC roof; the red ring on the map shows that coverage area.
Mission overview
A small satellite testing a new way to move in space
HUCSat is Harvard College’s first student-built CubeSat. Its payload tests whether shape-memory-alloy (SMA) actuators can reorient a solar-panel platform with less mass, power, and mechanical complexity than motors and geartrains.
The spacecraft was handed off for launch integration in January 2026, launched to the International Space Station aboard Northrop Grumman’s NG-24 mission on April 11, and deployed into low Earth orbit on July 2, 2026. The team is now receiving telemetry and mission data through its on-campus ground station and the amateur-satellite community.
- Form factor
- 2U · 10 × 10 × 20 cm
- Mass
- About 2.6 kg
- Orbit
- About 410 km · 51.6° inclination
- Launch
- NG-24 to the ISS · Apr 11, 2026
- Deployment
- From the ISS · Jul 2, 2026
- Communications
- UHF command/telemetry · S-band payload data
The payload
Shape-memory alloy solar-panel orientation
After deployment, a torsion-spring linkage lifts the panel platform away from the satellite body. Four nickel-titanium (Nitinol) coils can be heated individually; their contraction turns the platform toward the Sun without a motor or gearbox.
Onboard light sensors verify the panel’s response. The mission tests whether this low-part-count, low-power approach can produce useful, repeatable motion in orbit.
HUCSat progress
From the workbench to launch integration
A look inside the hardware preparation and testing that brought the student-built spacecraft to flight.
Mission goals
What HUCSat is demonstrating
- Initialize safely after deployment, establish communications, and detumble.
- Release the payload platform from its stowed configuration.
- Demonstrate controlled SMA-driven platform reorientation for at least one orbit.
- Downlink telemetry and payload data to verify actuation with onboard sensors.
Spacecraft systems
Built as an integrated stack
Avionics & attitude
A custom flight controller handles boot sequencing, payload scheduling, data logging, and fault response. An IMU, light sensors, and magnetorquers support detumbling and coarse attitude control.
Communications
UHF supports command and telemetry; S-band provides a higher-throughput payload-data link. The ground segment connects the student team with a wider amateur-satellite receiving network.
Verification
Tested before flight, monitored on orbit
Verification included battery protection and environmental checks, repeated payload deployment cycles under thermal-vacuum conditions, vibration testing, and end-to-end radio link checks with ground-station equipment. The team continues monitoring spacecraft telemetry and payload data after deployment.
April 2026 · Kennedy Space Center
The HUAC team at launch
The launch trip brought the team to Florida to celebrate HUCSat's journey to space and explore Kennedy Space Center together.
Watch the HUCSat launch
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences video of the HUCSat launch.
From the ISS to orbit
Watch HUCSat deploy
HUCSat's deployment from the International Space Station on July 2, 2026.
Satellite Team Members Spring 2026
