Eight years later, these Maryland students' satellite may finally go up into space

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SILVER SPRING, Md. - A group of Maryland students may see years of hard work finally come to fruition when the satellite they built will be launched into space this weekend.

What we know:

The satellite will be among the payload heading up to the International Space Station as part of a resupply mission scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday.

The CubeSat device was built by a group of middle and high school students with SilverSat in Silver Spring. SIlverSat is a non-profit that provides STEM education for children, including how to code and design electronics

Timeline:

Sunday's launch will be eight years in the making for these students, but for David Copeland, who started the project, it began more than a decade ago. 

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"I started working on this in March of 2014," said Copeland. He met with parents in his neighborhood to try and get the project off the ground, then started meeting with students in 2017.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the team to meet virtually, and their previous launch was scrubbed.

Photos From Space:

Once the satellite is deployed, it will start taking photographs from space and posting them to the SilverSat X page.

And you here on Earth can choose what pictures the CubeSat takes. Anyone can request a spot in the Northern Hemisphere that they would like photographed. You submit the location on their website, and the team will calculate the best latitude and longitude to capture the image, and post it to their page. 

You can submit requests here.

What's next:

The launch is scheduled for 6:11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. About 20 students and their families plan to be at the cape for the launch.