HONOLULU -- The University of Hawaii has joined the space race with its surveillance satellites out of the new Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory.

Researchers from the College of Engineering and the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences are planning a satellite mission for fall 2009. The school used $44 million in federal grants that were available.

The project will make UH the first university in the world to launch its own satellites.

"We have large satellites being able to be replaced by networks of small satellites, which are cheaper, faster to build and more fun to work with too," UH professor Wayne Shiroma said. "We have students who have started as high school juniors working on our satellites that have gone to get their master's degrees and can come back to UH and get high-paying jobs working on the satellites themselves."

The devices, to be launched from Barking Sands, Kauai, can be used for coral reef monitoring or disaster scene surveillance.