As part of the Tevel 2 program, an educational project that brings together Jewish, Arab, and Druze communities in Israel, a group of students developed nine mini-satellites that were launched into space on a SpaceX rocket on Monday morning.
The satellites, shaped like cubes measuring 10x10x10 centimeters, are equipped with scientific and communications instruments and will orbit the Earth at an altitude of 500 kilometers for approximately three years.
One of them is the first satellite built by Druze students in the town of Yarka. Regarding this milestone, Professor Meir Ariel, director of the Center for Space Engineering at Tel Aviv University, emphasized that this launch brings the total number of satellites created by Israeli students to 20, a global record.
Ariel stated that while “there are student projects in other parts of the world, nothing comparable on this scale” and that “students are responsible for everything: they program the software, integrate the hardware components, perform system testing, and operate the satellites in space.”