Welcome.   The Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory:

• Promotes innovative engineering and science research for terrestrial and planetary space missions.
• Develops, launches, and operates small spacecraft from the Hawaiian Islands to accelerate the validation of new space technologies.
• Provides workforce training in all aspects of unmanned space missions.
• Builds synergistic collaborations among educational, governmental, and corporate institutions interested in space exploration.

In the News

May 18, 2012 Miguel Nunes (ME/HSFL) was awarded First Place Gold in the PhD Level of the International Student Paper Competition in conjunction with the 13th International Space Conference of Pacific-basin Societies (ISCOPS) held May 15-18, 2012 in Kyoto, Japan. Nunes earned 58/60 points and a unanimous win from the four judges (two from Japan, one from China, and one from U.S.) with his paper, "Satellite Constellation Optimization for Future Earth Observation Missions Using Small Satellites." The ISCOPS is held jointly by the American Astronautical Society, the Chinese Society of Astronautics, and the Japanese Rocket Society as a forum for space decision-makers, experts, engineers, scientists, and students to exchange ideas and experiences in space technology and discuss the future of space development and its applications, mainly in the Pacific Basin countries. The 2012 conference theme was "Space for Our Future." Nunes (center) and HSFL's Dr. Trevor Sorensen (standing behind Nunes) posed for photos at the awards ceremony in Kyoto, Japan.

Funding Awarded for New Addition to the HSFL Satellite System Testing Facility
HSFL has been awarded a new grant for ~$765,000 from the FY 2012 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program toward the purchase and installation of a state-of-the-art Attitude Control System Test Bed. This test bed simulates the space environment using different simulators with a high degree of precision for sensor inputs: load free (equivalent to zero gravity testing), sun luminescence, GPS, and Earth's magnetic field. "This will greatly increase the capabilities of HSFL and our COSMOS [Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System] project," commented HSFL's Dr. Trevor Sorensen upon receiving award confirmation from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair—Student Awards Announced
Erik Keoni Wessel, a Hale Kula home school student working on the HSFL COSMOS project, earned prizes at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in Pittsburgh, PA, May 14-18, 2012. Wessel won awards totaling $3500 from NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory for his project, "Simulating Orbital Dynamics and Planetary Collisions in a Video Game." The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science and the Public, is the world's largest pre-college science fair competition. One thousand-five hundred participants from 70 countries, regions, and territories vied for the prizes and scholarships.


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