08 Oct YOUTH FROM 90 COUNTRIES BUILD & LAUNCH NANOSATELLITES JUST IN TIME FOR SPACE WEEK

These teenagers orchestrated every aspect of their mission, including building, coding, launching, recovering, and analyzing data. And they did it on their own!

[Team Cambodia cheers as their CubeSat prototype takes flight]

You can hear the cheers as teams of kids from around the world launched their first nanosatellites into low earth orbit as part of the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge.

What’s this Challenge?
Ninety teams from nations around the world accepted FIRST Global’s call to tackle a pressing world problem by designing, building and launching a type of nanosatellite, called a CubeSat Prototype, into the lower layers of earth’s atmosphere for the first-ever CubeSat Prototype Challenge.

Each FIRST Global team received the same standard kit of parts. The teenage students had less than seven weeks to design, build, code and launch their CubeSat Prototypes using high-altitude balloons or drones to accomplish a self-identified mission.

Participating teams include Afghanistan, Uruguay, Cambodia, and South Africa, among the more than 90 in total. Each team took on a specific challenge, for example:

• Uruguay: Analyze the impact of gases produced by the agricultural sector that generate climate change
• Cambodia: Advanced weather station
• South Africa: To sense air and ground pollution
• Greece: Analyze reforestation of charred lands following raging wildfires

For some of the nations, launching a CubeSat Prototype into the lower atmosphere is an actual first for their country. By introducing a “space” component to this year’s Challenge, FIRST Global is paving the path for students from around the world to enter new STEM fields including aerospace.

“The world is in desperate need of solutions to its problems,” said FIRST Global Founder Dean Kamen. “We have to create the next generation of problem solvers and give them the vision, courage, and skill sets to work together to solve those problems.”

Learn more about the CubeSat Prototype Challenge, as well as the other components of the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge, by visiting first.global/archive/fgc-2021. See all that teams have accomplished and hear more about what exciting steps lay ahead for the program by tuning in to the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge Celebration, online, on Saturday, October 30 at 9:00 AM ET.

About FIRST Global
FIRST Global’s mission is to inspire science and technology leadership and innovation in youth from all nations in order to increase understanding, instill the importance of cooperation, address the world’s most pressing issues and improve quality of life for all. Bringing these future STEM leaders together in an engaging and collaborative competition drives home the importance, excitement, and applicability of STEM education and demonstrates that they can work together — even in competition — using the tools of STEM to find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. Learn more: www.first.global.

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Contact: press@first.global