Student-built system supports Virginia Spaceport Authority rocket launch

When the Virginia Spaceport Authority recently launched a rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, the work of electrical and computer engineering students made it possible to monitor launch pad operations across multiple sites in one system.

“For the first time, we were able to see in one system one launch pad supporting another,” said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Roosevelt Mercer Jr., chief executive officer and executive director of Virginia Spaceport Authority, a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. “We couldn’t do that before. It was superb to be able to take their work and use it in our launch.”

As part of the Major Design Experience course within the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a six-member student team developed a centralized monitoring system for one of the four launch pads and a payload processing facility at Virginia Spaceport Authority’s launch complex. It is one of only four spaceports in the nation licensed by the Federal Aviation Association for vertical lift to orbit.

The Major Design Experience course is a two-semester senior capstone during which students tackle an assigned industry or research project, collaborating with their electrical and computer engineering peers and connecting with subject matter experts. Throughout the year, students develop their own solutions, create prototypes, and ultimately demonstrate their finished work.

Using simulated data in a sandbox environment, the supervisory control and data acquisition team was challenged to build a communication link between the central hypervisor server and one of the spaceport’s four launch pads, each of which was built at a different time and uses different hardware and communication protocols. The differences in construction had made it inefficient for spaceport engineers to conduct cohesive operations between all the launch pads. 

The students built a model supervisory control and data acquisition system that monitors, gathers, and integrates data from the launch pad’s ground support equipment and the processing facility, feeding it to a clean, easy-to-understand user interface. The process they developed enabled spaceport engineers to configure and log historical data and to alert operators to less-than-favorable conditions.

The result? The system increased efficiency by detecting problems faster and reducing the average time to repair.

“While my engineers were able to continue with day-to-day operations and launching rockets, the bright minds at Virginia Tech worked on our problem and brought the solution to us,” Mercer said. “The collaboration with the Virginia Tech students was well worth the modest fee we paid.”

This is the third year of a successful partnership as electrical and computer engineering students helped Virginia Spaceport Authority develop a centralized control system. Next year’s cohort of students will work on adding a second launch pad into the system. 

As CEO, Mercer shared his reasons for working with the students, what impressed him, and why other industry leaders should get involved with the Major Design Experience.

What skills did the students demonstrate that impressed you?

Their energy and enthusiasm for getting after the problem impressed me the most. The intellect they brought is enhanced by Virginia Tech’s academic program — it’s one of the things that sets the university apart, that academic rigor.

How does working with students influence the way your teams approach problem-solving or innovation internally?

The way each generation looks and approaches a problem is different, and I can see it because I’ve been around so long. When you work with the current generation, you get the bright, young minds and their approach to solving problems, figuring out solutions, and getting it done. When you’re a senior leader in this business, you have to guard against the “this is how we used to do it” syndrome. Working with students allows you to see the novel approaches, the lack of fear of risk.

What would you say to other industry leaders who might be unsure about investing time in programs like Major Design Experience?

If they don’t get involved, they’re missing an opportunity to enhance their operation, their business, their particular arena, etc. And if they’re still in doubt, call me.