Project 01 · Knights Satellite Club

TSat-2A

Mechanical development of a 2U tethered-satellite demonstrator, and what its 450-ft flight showed about the parachute release.

Role: Mechanical Team Lead
Dates: Aug 2025 – Mar 2026
Team: 5-member mechanical team
Status: Flown Mar 28, 2026

My role
Release mechanism
Testing
Flight and failure
Lesson

TSat-2A enclosure CAD with the side panel open, showing internal mounting — TSat-2A enclosure CAD.

My role

I led a five-member mechanical team on TSat-2A. I designed the enclosure walls, the servo mounting board the release line ties into, and the mechanical PCB mounting. I also carried out the integration and assembly of every part. I supervised the camera mounts, the panel and top-panel system, and the deployment-line tensioning.

Alongside the hardware, I kept the mechanical requirements and the mass, volume and component budgets, and maintained CAD configuration control in Onshape.

Closed TSat-2A enclosure CAD in black and yellow — Closed enclosure CAD.

TSat-2A hardware during assembly with the top panel lifted — Integration: the servo and top panel lifted above the enclosure during assembly.

Choosing the parachute release

The payload had to hold its parachute securely on the way up and then release it on command. We chose a servo-driven cutter that cuts a fishing line holding the parachute compartment closed.

Option	Outcome
Servo-driven fishing-line cutter	Selected for low cost, materials we already had, lower weight, our schedule, and easier testing.
Burnwire release	Considered, not pursued.
Servo latch / hinge	Considered, not pursued.

The housing was 3D-printed in PETG as two repeatable sections. The PCBs sat on heated inserts and standoffs so they could be removed and repositioned during integration.

Integration and testing

I was responsible for checking that the line cut cleanly, that it held at the right tension so it wouldn't release early, and that the parachute came out correctly. Before flight, the team ran:

Test	What we learned
Four-point retention test	The connection held beyond the range of our force gauge.
Dummy-housing drops from about 50 ft	The parachute extracted. This was a limited-height check, not the full flight setup.
20-minute integrated electronics and servo test	No data corruption, but the line did not cut.
Integrated PCB-in-housing dry run	Checked physical fit and communication with everything installed.

A servo-panel floor cracked before launch, so we reinforced the bolt holes with epoxy and replaced the servo panel.

Flight and failure

Flight video (muted): ascent under the balloon, release, and the payload falling without a full parachute.

TSat-2A flew on March 28, 2026, reaching about 450 ft on its tether. The first cut command was acknowledged but didn't cut the line. Separation happened later, but the parachute did not deploy.

We reviewed the flight video and worked through the possible failure modes. Part of the parachute came out while the rest stayed trapped, which pointed to the servo compartment. The cause was the parachute catching on a piece of 3D-printing support material left in the part.

The housing was badly damaged, but the onboard images and altitude data were recovered from the SD card. There was no second launch and no redesign.

Altitude versus time graph in meters and feet — Altitude log from the flight. The available log tops out at 439.5 ft; we observed about 450 ft.

Aerial view of the UCF campus from the payload camera — Image captured by the onboard camera during the flight.

Damaged payload and tangled parachute on the grass after landing — The payload and parachute where they landed.

Team inspecting the recovered payload and parachute on a table — Post-flight inspection of the recovered hardware.

Lesson

Final-assembly checks have to cover the whole packed deployment path, including leftover print supports and anything the parachute could catch on, not just whether the mechanism actuates.

Photos and CAD: Knights Satellite Club team, used with permission.