Irvine high-school students hoping to launch satellite

IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) -- Students at five Irvine high schools are working to build a working miniature satellite that they hope to launch into space next year.

The idea for the program came from two dads who live on the same street in Irvine in October. Brent Freeze and Kain Sosa were hoping to instill their own children and other kids with their same love for the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering and math.

"Trying to do something big in space would help inspire these students, keep them interested in STEM maybe help nurture their development along," Freeze said.

The Irvine CubeSat program was born with help from funding by the Irvine Public School Foundation, as well as some scientists at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena who are helping with the project on their own time.

If successful, it would be the first time a high-school program west of the Mississippi River successfully puts a CubeSat into space.