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CREST is a consortium of academic institutions with a common interest in using student-centered projects to develop advanced technologies and to conduct exciting science missions using spacecraft and robotic systems. CREST works with a variety of collaborators and sponsors to explore novel concepts, prototype emerging capabilities, and validate state-of-the-art systems through experimental field demonstrations. This provides partners with low-cost innovations in an environment that can tolerate risk while also providing students with cutting-edge, hands-on, interdisciplinary engineering education experiences.

CREST Schools Prepare for Four Satellite Launches - Students in several CREST institutions are preparing to operate four new satellites that will be launched into space off of a USAF rocket from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska.

	O/OREOS - The first satellite is a biological test spacecraft developed by scientists and engineers at NASA Ames Research Center. O/OREOS is a triple cube spacecraft about the size of a loaf of bread, and it will perform two tests during its 1-year mission. The first experiment will test how microorganisms survive and adapt to the stresses of space; the other will monitor the stability of organic molecules in space. O/OREOS includes a HAM radio beacon so that amateur radio operators throughout the world can collect data on satellite performance. It also includes a novel de-orbit mechanism design by a Santa Clara University graduate student.
		Mission Control - Students at Santa Clara University will perform all mission operations for O/OREOS. Santa Clara's Robotic Systems Laboratory operates a distributed satellite operations network with radio communication stations at several locations throughout the United States (California, Hawaii, Missouri, Pennsylvania) and in El Salvador. Over the course of the mission, students at Saint Louis University and Baylor University will host and operate additional stations in support of the mission. Students earn academic class in order to become certified to be a part of the NASA operations crew.
NanoSail-D - Students will also operate the NanoSail-D mission, developed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA Ames Research Center as a test of solar sail mechanism technology. NanoSail-D also includes a HAM radio beacon, allowing amateur operators to track its performance during its very brief mission. Because of the low orbit of the spacecraft, the solar sail will operate predominantly as a drag sail and will cause it to de-orbit in less than 100 days.
		FASTRAC - The two student-designed FASTRAC satellites will also be deployed on this same launch. FASTRAC was developed by students at UT Austin, with students at Santa Clara University supplying the on-board computing system for each satellite. The two FASTRAC satellites will demonstrate enabling technologies for satellite formation flying, and they are sponsored by the US Air Force University NanoSatellite Program.