SERC Student Team Integrates USC’s 4th Satellite for 2026 Launch

The SERC and Department of Astronautical Engineering student team successfully integrated USC’s 4th satellite in its history to the launch deployer in San Luis Obispo MAVERICK Space Systems facility on June 10th!  Under the guidance of SEOPS Space the team was guided throughout the integration lifecycle to culminate in the finish satellite locked and loaded into the deployer!   The student team that integrated the satellite was (from far back right clockwise) Cristobal Garrido (PhD candidate), Chase Stueber (MS), Brian Burk (MS), Irfan Annuar (MS), Nicholas Zecchini  (Post MS), and Rufino Perea (MS).  The satellite is intended to launch on SpaceX Transporter 17 on 8-9 July.  MAVERIC (the satellites name!) is USC’s first all student development, built, integrated and operated satellite with two commercial cameras onboard and 4 separate processors to demonstrate advances in magnetic attitude control and both 2 and 3 dimensional image collection.  USC SERC’s Ground Station on campus will be used to operate the satellite as it goes through its launch and early orbit operations and checkout for roughly 1 year of life.