Photo provided by Brad King MTU alumni and students are seen the at VIP launch location in Cape Canaveral Tuesday.

HOUGHTON — Somewhere in orbit around Earth is a piece of Michigan Technological University.

Oculus-ASR, a student-built nanosatellite, was put into orbit after the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carried it into space early Tuesday morning.

Part of a Department of Defense mission, it will serve as an imaging target for U.S. Air Force telescopes on the ground, said Michigan Technological University professor Brad King, the team’s advisor. Operators at a telescope in Hawaii will take readings of the satellite. Those will then be checked against those from the satellite itself.

“That gives them a way to check their work and improve their techniques,” he said.

This is the first space launch for Tech’s Aerospace Enterprise team, and likely the university, King said. The team began 18 years ago when students John Verville and Casie Wolak sought King out.

“I never had a doubt that MTU would eventually launch a satellite,” Wolak, now in active duty in the Air Force, said in a Tech release. “We knew we had a lot to learn our first couple years as a new satellite design team, but we also saw the enthusiasm from students across departments on campus. It was clear we were laying the foundation for a strong program.”

It attracted attention early. In only its second year, the club won a contract with the Air Force Research Lab to build a nanosatellite. Schools in beat out in the nationwide competition included the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Because of the capabilities of the university and the reputation, they basically took a chance on us, because we weren’t known for aerospace and satellite design,” Wolak said.

Since then, Tech’s gotten five or six follow-up contracts.

About 300 students have had a role in the satellite, King estimated. And Tech had about 85 people there for the launch — mostly alumni, with some current students.

“There was such camaraderie and team spirit, that even though they’d been out in the workspace for six years, eight years, they all converged back on Cape Canaveral for the launch, so we had a great reunion,” King said.

They had VIP passes, getting them “basically as close as you can get to the rocket without bruning yourself,” King said.

According to King, seeing a rocket launch that close is life-changing. Even more so when it is carrying your work.

“It shakes the ground, it shakes your chest, and you can’t speak for a while,” he said. “Then you realize there was a satellite on top with your fingerprints. There were tears.”

The launch is hardly it for Tech’s Enterprise team. It is working on two more satellites. Auris (Latin for “ear”), is an Air Force satellite used to listen to other satellites. Stratus, for NASA, will image clouds for climate and weather monitoring.

Those will probably launch in about two years, King said.

Tuesday’s launch puts Tech on a short list of spacefaring universities.

“It shows that we compete with, and we’re shoulder to shoulder with, the best universities in the country and in fact the world,” King said.

He couldn’t resist tacking on one more.

“In the galaxy.”