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Wolfpack CubeSat students brief council on past launches, new missions and request for support
Summary
Students and their educator updated the council on a decade of Wolfpack CubeSat activity, described upcoming missions (WolfSat 1 and pocket-cube and wooden-chassis concepts), and asked council for a letter of support for a Tallahassee appropriations request.
Kevin Simmons, founder of the Wolfpack CubeSat Development Team, and several students presented an annual update to the City Council on Dec. 5, detailing past launches, international outreach, upcoming missions and a request for municipal support for an appropriation to the state.
Simmons told the council the Wolfpack has operated for a decade as a student-led nonprofit based in Palm Beach Gardens and noted prior accomplishments, including launches in 2018 and 2022 and a mission last summer led by a former local valedictorian now at Princeton. “This marks the 10th year, since I started a CubeSat team here in the county and gardens,” Simmons said.
Students described three missions in development. Alex Castronevo, 16 and the software-team lead for WolfSat 1, said the next satellite “aims to study a type of bacteria that can digest the very common PET plastic” and that the mission has secured full funding from private donations paired with matching funds from the Stiles Lisonbee Foundation plus a launch ride through Firefly Aerospace’s Selective Dreams 2.0 program.
Ninth-grader Sebastian Timbal described WolfSat 2, a wooden chassis pocket-satellite concept that will test nickel‑zinc battery performance and — per the presentation — is intended to reduce atmospheric reentry aerosolization compared with conventional aluminum chassis; the team said it planned a high-altitude balloon test of the wood chassis before any orbital flight.
Thirteen‑year‑old Julian Sibilero described WolfCube 1, a pocket-cube (5 × 5 × 10 cm) planned to carry a small ArduCam camera to capture low-resolution Earth imagery and to establish flight heritage for that form factor.
Students also described outreach and conference activity in Japan, Peru and Europe, and a local SmallSat Education Conference that drew roughly 540 attendees and 36 presenters. Lily Niskern, a team policy lead, said the group will seek a two-part appropriation at the state level to support space camps and after-school programs plus longer pipelines from high school into the workforce; Simmons asked council staff to coordinate a letter of support for that Tallahassee appropriation.
Vice Mayor and council members spoke favorably and signaled support. One council member offered to compile and forward a letter of support and the mayor was asked to sign it next week. The students left materials and invited council members to visit their program.
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