Cleveland TV station WKYC recently interviewed Ohio Northern University alum Katie Oriti, who is working with a team, which launched a NASA satellite in December. The satellite is about the size of a loaf of bread. Oriti is the team leader.

Here are portions of that story by Jeff Reidel:

In December, NASA Glenn Research Center sent into space a satellite about the size of a loaf of bread, call ALBus. And if this mission is successful, it could power a next generation of small exploration.

The micro-satellites are called CubeSats, because they are made up of 10-centimeter cubes. They are so small they can hitch a ride on larger space missions. Mostly they’ve been used to observe the Earth, but their uses are growing.

“They are being used for scientific missions now. Educational purposes so even high schools have put together CubeSats and launched them before,” said Oriti, the ALBus team leader at NASA Glenn Research Center.

The big challenge isn’t their size, but their power. CubeSats can only generate five to 20 watts of power through their solar panels, limiting what they can do. But Oriti hopes ALBus will preform better.