* The Colorado Space Grant Consortium is one of 50 such programs founded in 1989 by NASA to help maintain the nation聮s preeminence in space science and technology.
* The Consortium is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is a joint effort by 16 colleges and universities throughout Colorado.
* The DATA-CHASER payload was funded by a NASA educational grant, a contract with NASA聮s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, and an Educational Excellence Grant from the State of Colorado. The Consortium regularly receives additional funding and support for space missions from the aerospace industry.
* The Consortium's three primary goals are research, training and outreach and it provides students with hands-on experience in space science. Students work in teams to accomplish each phase of their projects, including initial concept, project design and construction, data analysis and publication of results.
* Past Colorado Space Grant Consortium projects have included the design and development of NASA shuttle payloads ESCAPE and ESCAPE II, which flew in 1993 and 1994. The Consortium also has successfully designed and built three sounding rocket experiments launched from NASA聮s Wallops Island facility in Virginia.
* The Consortium's training program includes an undergraduate curriculum in general space science at CU-Boulder and a video course available to students at all Consortium member schools in the state.
* The Consortium's educational outreach targets school children in grades K-12 with teacher resource material, mentoring programs and a speakers bureau. The focus of the K-12 outreach program is to make students aware of educational and career paths in space science or engineering.