A school space club, Astrogazers, has taken a step closer to launching their CubeSat into orbit with help of the UK’s largest research aircraft. 

Croydon High School’s all-girl Astrogazers club recently completed the final stage of live testing and calibration of their CubeSat satellite, which is built to measure sunlight in the atmosphere.

The initiative, which encourages STEM participation, saw the club’s prototype CubeSat satellite carried aboard the FAAM Airborne Laboratory – a highly modified BAe-146 aircraft used for atmospheric research all over the world.

During the test the prototype satellite successfully gathered data from onboard the aircraft during a flight over East England.