Hyderabad is set to witness a remarkable moment in India’s space journey as a group of 17 school students from Blue Blocks Montessori School prepare to see their self-designed CubeSat payload launched aboard an ISRO rocket. The satellite payload, named Project SBB-1 (Satellite Blue Blocks-1), has been officially cleared by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for launch on January 12 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR), Sriharikota, as part of the PSLV-C62 mission.
The students, aged between 12 and 15 years, have achieved a feat rarely seen at the school level. Unlike most STEM projects that rely heavily on adult-led assembly, the team independently designed, assembled, soldered, and coded the CubeSat payload. They worked with commercial off-the-shelf sensors, integrated the electronics, and developed the firmware required to transmit real-time telemetry data during the mission.
While scientists from space startup Take Me 2 Space provided mentorship and technical guidance, the students themselves carried out all core engineering tasks — from hardware integration to software debugging.
“Debugging the code when the sensors failed to communicate was the toughest part. We didn’t want to just watch a launch; we wanted to be on the rocket,” said one of the students involved in the project.
Learning Through ‘Structural Autonomy’
The project was developed under the Blue Blocks Micro Research Institute, which follows an educational framework known as “Structural Autonomy.” This approach encourages students to solve complex problems with minimal adult intervention, fostering independent thinking, collaboration, and real-world engineering skills.
Blue Blocks co-founder Pavan Goyal highlighted the significance of the achievement, saying,
“They are not future engineers. They are flight-ready engineers today.”
The initiative has already attracted international recognition. The Nobel Peace Center in Oslo has invited Goyal to present the institute’s educational methodology, while the students are also scheduled to deliver a technical review at the AMI Conference in Mexico, showcasing their work to a global scientific audience.
About the PSLV-C62 Mission
ISRO’s PSLV-C62 mission will primarily deploy the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite, along with 15 co-passenger satellites from India and abroad. The mission will also demonstrate the Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID), a small prototype re-entry vehicle developed by a Spanish startup.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) remains ISRO’s most reliable launch system, with 63 successful missions to its credit. It has powered historic space missions including Chandrayaan-1, the Mars Orbiter Mission, Astrosat, and Aditya-L1, and holds the world record for launching 104 satellites in a single mission in 2017.
With Project SBB-1 aboard PSLV-C62, these Hyderabad students are not just witnessing history — they are becoming a part of it.