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NEWS New World screwworm reported past previously established biological barrier in Panama, raises concerns A2
SPORTS Welcome to the jungle: Aggies to take on two Tiger opponents following rough start in conference play A9
Improved rural health program supports growth $50 billion apportioned to offset Medicaid cuts while providing base for change By Jolie Jackson News Reporter
Photos courtesy of the University Nanosatellite Program
Top to bottom: Aerospace engineering graduate student Shirish Pandam and former Texas A&M mechanical engineering student Kate Woodard conduct an environmental phase test on AggieSat-6 in January 2025. A photo of the AggieSat-6 satellite during environmental phase testing in January 2025.
AggieSat6 prepares for launch Aerospace laboratory to send off satellite designed, built, operated entirely by A&M students in Spring 2026 By Erin Wunderlich News Reporter Just southwest of the Zachry Engineering Education Complex sits an unassuming, square building. From the outside, it could easily be mistaken as an extension of Northside Garage, but inside, hundreds of students are designing projects that directly compete with industry and government standards. The Munnerlyn Astronomical Instrumentation Lab is Texas A&M’s hub for aerospace innovation. Inside the AggieSat Laboratory Student Space Program, students design, build and operate space-based engineering projects — including a satellite set to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base by the end of Spring 2026. AggieSat6, or AGS6, is a 6U CubeSat satellite designed to improve space situational awareness using radiofrequency. Sponsored by the University Nanosatellite Program, or UNP, the satellite was entirely designed and built by AggieSat students. It will launch alongside a satellite manufactured by Aggie-owned Aegis Aerospace Inc. — making the project an all-Aggie mission. “I think a lot of us are achieving a dream that we didn’t think we’d achieve till several years after college, which is actually launching something in space,” interdisciplinary engineering senior and AGS6 Mission Director & Project Manager Avery Barriga said. The AggieSat Lab operates as both a student organization and a research lab, with students taking ownership from idea generation all the way to operation.
AGS6 will fill a gap needed for tracking other satellites in space, from space. About as large as a family-sized cereal box, the satellite is equipped with five antennas arranged in a star shape — essentially functioning as a “big ear” by searching for radio frequencies. Ground-based satellite detection methods, primarily used by the Department of Defense, need to sweep entire sections of sky to track other satellites over time. AGS6 uses a targeted method to search specific frequencies, reducing tracking time from weeks to days. “Using ground-based systems to track satellites is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except you don’t even know where the haystack is,” aerospace engineering graduate student, Guidance Navigation and Control Lead and Mission Planner Shirish Pandam said. “AGS6 not only pinpoints other satellites more efficiently, but also has on-board data processing — hardware that has never been done in space before. Instead of sending down packets and packets of data, it will compute three numbers: the satellite’s azimuth, elevation and position to ground control.” After its launch, AGS6 will focus on locating other satellites in the Iridium constellation — or a collection of satellites that all tune to the same frequency — as their positions are well documented and ideal for target practice. By identifying the direction from which a signal originates, AGS6 can help locate non-cooperative satellites lost in space. One day, a group of multiple AGS6’s could eliminate the need for ground stations entirely. “I’ve been working on this for over six years, so there’s definitely a sense of relief, accomplishment and pride to see it all come together,” Pandam said. “The launch is exciting, but the actual prize will be the first time it talks to us — because the mission doesn’t end until we get data back.” Once in orbit, AGS6 will be operated from the Munnerlyn building by the lab’s mission
and flight directors. The spacecraft also carries a dosimeter, or a device that collects radiation data by sensing alpha and beta particles in space. All information collected will be sent to The Aerospace Corporation’s database to support ongoing small-satellite missions in low Earth orbit. “We are a research lab in the Department of Aerospace, but by no means is it restricted to aerospace engineering,” aerospace engineering senior and Payload Sub-team Lead & Lab Program Manager Philip Mathews said. “The lab has given me a community that feels like a second home. If you’re passionate about space, there’s a place for you here.” Mathews and computer science junior, Mission Planner and Command and Data Handling Lead Alex Halbesleben said the challenges of designing and building a satellite as undergraduate students helped them gain confidence in new technical skills. “Philip and I were interns over the summer, and that was definitely a trial by fire,” Halbesleben said. “We needed to install a new radio for AGS6 late in the final phases of testing, and it was a learning curve. But now we’re experts on the integration between hardware and software — a skill I never would have dove into without working on this project.” Students in the AggieSat Lab can take on engineering roles in project management, electrical, mechanical, computer and more, Mathews said. Program alumni have gone on to work for major aerospace employers, including SpaceX, the UNP and NASA. “I joined the project at the end of my first semester freshman year, and it’s been a constant throughout my entire college experience,” Barriga said. “It became more than just building a spacecraft. It represents the people I care about most, along with hundreds of other students who put their time and effort into it. Seeing all of that work come together is incredible.”
Texas will receive $1.4 billion from the federal government over the next five years for rural healthcare improvements. The Texas A&M Rural Engagement Program is offering free consulting services with medical professionals for rural hospitals making proposals for a share of the funding. The Rural Health Transformation Program is a $50 billion funding initiative as part of President Donald Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act designed to support investments within rural healthcare entities across the United States, beginning in fiscal year 2026 and concluding in fiscal year 2030. Half of the funds will be evenly distributed to all 50 states while the other half will be distributed based on applications from each state’s governor to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Texas was the largest recipient, with $1.4 billion split evenly over the next five years awarded from its Rural Texas Strong application. Six initiatives were included within the proposal, each designed to support investments in rural Texas healthcare. The initiatives included investments into the prevention and intervention of chronic diseases, consumer technology for access to reliable and coordinated care, innovative tools such as artificial intelligence and telehealth, workforce development for rural areas, improving data security and modernizing rural facilities. Rural Texas hospitals will apply to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission with proposals based on the aforementioned six initiatives. Within the Rural Engagement Program, the A&M Rural and Community Health Institute, or ARCHI, collaborates with the Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine, College of Nursing and Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy. “Since the Rural [Health] Transformation Program has only five years of funding, there is a large focus on creating initiatives that will be sustainable after the funding ends,” ARCHI Executive Director Dr. Kia Parsi said. “Creating such initiatives can be challenging. And what ARCHI can do, because of our expertise, is help these rural hospitals and clinics try to identify what type of programs are most appropriate for their community while also being sustainable.” One main problem within rural healthcare is workforce shortages, addressed in Initiative Four of the Rural Texas Strong application. The A&M Rural Medicine program is designed to combat this issue, as Executive Director Curtis Donaldson sends medical students to rural hospitals across the state. “Texas A&M approached me five years ago to help them start up a rural medicine initiative because physicians were not returning back to rural Texas,” Donaldson said. “So, we piloted a program with two counties in Texas to get our students from our medical school to go spend two weeks at a rural location, learning about rural practice from a rural physician. And while they were there, we had the communities all geared up to host them and show off their community, kind of a recruitment style, if you will.” Since then, Donaldson has led the program statewide, where he is able to gain information about what rural hospitals need as he communicates with the rural physicians leading the students’ educational experiences. “I work daily with physicians in all of our locations, who are teaching our students while they’re out in these rural locations,” Donaldson said. “I engage daily with physicians across the state, so I’m in contact and do my best to understand, ‘What are the pinch points and how can we continue to help at Texas A&M?’ And so I was engaged in part of some of these conversations around the rural health transformation.” Though A&M is doing its part to help rural Texas, it is currently unclear if the funding given by the Rural Health Transformation Program will be enough to offset the major cuts in Medicaid, according to Parsi. “With Medicaid and Marketplace insurance cuts, there will likely be less people eligible for these types of insurance leading to more uninsured individuals,” Parsi said.
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