CofC Students Contribute to International Space Station Mission

^{Above (l–r): Eva Godwin and Gael Gonzalez with the equipment they helped develop in the College of Charleston lab (Photos by Catie Cleveland)}

This story was updated on July 6, 2026.

The CubeSat carrying the CofC students’ payload is currently scheduled to launch Tuesday, July 7, at 3 a.m. The CubeSat mission is titled SUCHAI-4. 

Additional information on the launch, including a link to live launch coverage, can be seen at the SpaceX website: https://www.spacex.com/launches/transporter17.

This early morning launch will now complete the second half of the two-part mission. Read below for more about part one: the ultraviolet imaging system payload developed by two CofC undergraduate students, which was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 11, 2026. 

While the ISS stay accomplished space-based testing of the student-developed UV imaging system, using a compact laser to mimic incoming starlight, the CubeSat mission entails actual using of an identical imaging system to observe nearby star systems for radiation outbursts.  

Joe Carson, professor of astrophysics at the College of Charleston, says the goal is to better understand the radiation environments experienced by hypothetical orbiting planets around such stars, including planets that are candidates for hosting life.      

This story was originally published on April 2, 2026.

Two College of Charleston astrophysics students who graduate next month are seeing years of hard work come to fruition, with a planned launch of research instruments they helped develop. 

The payload heading to the International Space Station includes a liquid lens-based optical camera that will monitor biological specimens and an ultraviolet camera that will track stellar activity among young stars. 

The equipment will be transported from a College of Charleston lab to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this week, set to blast off on April 8. 

The complex instruments were developed under the supervision of Joe Carson, professor of astrophysics, and Marcos Díaz, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Universidad de Chile, who also supervised a Chilean student. 

This is the College’s first time contributing to a space-based mission. The team’s work was featured in the winter 2025 edition of College of Charleston Magazine. 

The cameras will collect data in space for about six months. The information will be analyzed once the payload returns in the fall. 

“It’s really cool to be able to tell people that we have this really exciting mission going into space, into the International Space Station, and then later deployed into a lower orbit,” says astrophysics major Eva Godwin. “It’s also really cool to say that I have touched something that will be in space!”

Fellow astrophysics major Gael Gonzalez says it’s thrilling to have this level of access to the mission.

“I’ve been to Florida many times, but never to the Kennedy Space Center,” he says. “Now I have the opportunity to actually enter the building and do final integrations before the launch.”

The project is special not only because of its highly collaborative nature with a university in Chile, but also because of student involvement at the undergraduate level. 

“I think it’s definitely rare to have undergraduate students playing such a central role,” says Carson, noting the students were involved in every aspect of the project, from feasibility to fundraising, to doing modeling and testing, and then actually participating in the launch. He says it’s been rewarding to see the students learn and grow. “We have smart people from around the world working on this project.”

All three students involved in the project plan to enter Ph.D. programs upon graduation – and will do so with impressive résumés.