SSEP | Student Spaceflight Experiments Program

A Model U.S. National STEM Education Initiative for Grades 5-16
to inspire the next generation
of America’s scientists and engineers

NEW SSEP FLIGHT OPPORTUNITY – Mission 20 to the International Space Station
Experiment Design Phase: January to March, 2025; Flight to ISS: Fall 2025    

To explore this opportunity for your community – after carefully reading the SSEP Executive Summary below – send an email to Dr. Jeff Goldstein, SSEP’s creator and National Program Director, to set up an informational Zoom videoconference with you and your community stakeholders.

Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education
jeffgoldstein@ncesse.org

Mission 20 Press Release (9/13/24) Download: Press Release as PDF

[VIDEOS] SSEP Description: Clip 1 (NASA), Clip 2 (NASA)
[VIDEOS] SSEP Launch and On-Orbit Operations History
NASA Release 7/20/17: SSEP Wins Award for Research on International Space Station
[VIDEO] SSEP Showcased at Congressional Hearing 11/5/19 – STEM in Era of Commercial Space
Scientific American feature article on SSEP: February 17, 2015

Mission 20 Downloads:
– Mission 20 3-page Program Overview (MS Word)
– Mission 19 and 20 PowerPoint
– 2-page SSEP Overview with Strategic Objectives, used for Congressional Briefings (PDF)

Breaking News from the SSEP National Blog
Subscribe to the Blog to receive email notification of breaking SSEP News. Use the Subscribe Box at the bottom of the right column.

• WATCH LIVE: The Flight of SSEP Mission 18 Experiments Launching on SpaceX CRS-31 – TARGET: Monday, Nov 4, 2024, 9:29 pm EST October 29, 2024
• THE SOLUTION to the Mission 19 Student Challenge: Understanding Weightlessness – You Want Me to Take a Bathroom Scale Where? September 24, 2024

SSEP / International Space Station Multimedia (click on toggles below)

SSEP Executive Summary
(last revised 2/28/24)

A careful read of this home page will provide an Executive Summary of the Program. The rest of this website provides a deeper understanding of program pedagogy and operations; guidance for how a community can come aboard; and resources to conduct the program.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) was launched in June 2010 by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in strategic partnership with Nanoracks, LLC. Designed as a model U.S. national Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiative, the program gives students across a participating community the ability to design and propose real microgravity experiments to fly in low Earth orbit (experiments conducted in a “weightless” environment). SSEP was first carried out aboard the final two flights of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program in 2011 (STS-134 Endeavour, STS-135 Atlantis). In 2012 SSEP transitioned to operations on the International Space Station (ISS) – America’s newest National Laboratory.

SSEP is suitable for students in pre-college grades 5-12, 2-year community colleges, and 4-year colleges and universities. A participating  pre-college community typically engages 300+ students (at least 100 students) in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing. For an undergraduate community, it is expected that at least 30 students will be engaged.

In 2012, SSEP was extended to international communities through the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, NCESSE’s new international arm.

Click on the image and feel the magic. Shuttle Endeavour on its final flight (STS-134) docked at ISS, May 23, 2011. Aboard her are 16 SSEP Experiments.

SSEP is about immersing and engaging
students and their teachers in every facet
of real science—on the high frontier—so
that students are given the chance to be
scientists—and experience science firsthand.

More broadly, SSEP is about a commitment to student ownership in exploration, to science as journey, and to the joys of learning.

Of special note – SSEP garners extensive media coverage at local, regional, and national levels (over 1,400 articles to date). School districts effectively leverage media exposure from their participation in this high caliber STEM initiative, and at a time when STEM education is of national strategic importance (see SSEP in the News).

Important note: SSEP is not designed for an individual class or a small number of students in a pre-college community. Implementing SSEP for an appropriate-sized student audience is straightforward, and Implementation Plans from a large number of communities that have participated in SSEP are available on request.

Program Overview

Each community participating in SSEP is provided a very real research asset – launch services to transport one student team designed microgravity experiment to the International Space Station (ISS) where it is operated by the astronauts. The experiment is designed for operation in a flight certified, straightforward to use microgravity research mini-laboratory. After a typical 4 to 6 week stay in orbit, the experiment will be returned to Earth for harvesting and analysis by the community’s student flight team.

Mirroring how professional researchers formally compete to obtain limited research assets, the participating community carries out a ‘call for proposals’. More specifically, the community conducts a local Flight Experiment Design Competition, engaging potentially hundreds of students in teams of typically 3-5, with each team vying for the community’s single experiment slot by proposing a microgravity research program that can be carried out in the mini-laboratory. The competition is conducted through formal submission of real (but grade level appropriate) research proposals by the student teams – as is standard practice for professional researchers. 50-80 flight experiment proposals are typically secured across a single pre-college community. At least 10 proposals are required for an undergraduate community.

Each community’s flight experiment is selected through a formal 2-step proposal review process. The final selection is carried out by the SSEP National Step 2 Review Board, which typically meets at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, or NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The flight experiment then undergoes a 4-month NASA flight safety review at Johnson Space Center; laboratory refinement by the student flight team; handover to Nanoracks in Houston for integration into the SSEP experiments payload; and payload integration into the ferry vehicle for flight to ISS. SSEP experiment payloads launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

SSEP is not a simulation – this is very real spaceflight. This is very real student immersion in space science research, and a remarkable opportunity for a community.

Stated more powerfully —

SSEP provides each community its own – very real – Space Program.

An annual SSEP National Conference held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, immerses delegations of students in a real research conference where they formally present to their peers on experiment design and science results (explore the 2019 Conference page, and video clips of presentations archived on the Scientific Return and Reporting pages, see e.g., Mission 13 to ISS Scientific Return and Reporting).

Mission 14 patch from Moreno Valley, CA, flown on SpaceX-21, returned to Earth January 14, 2021. Click to Zoom

A suite of SSEP program elements—the Community Program—leverages the flight experiment design competition to engage the entire community, embracing a Learning Community Model for STEM education. The core element is a Mission Patch Art and Design Competition allowing hundreds of students across the community (down to grade K) to capture through art and design their community’s SSEP experience. Up to two Mission Patches accompany the community’s selected flight experiment to low Earth orbit. In terms of an experience that mirrors America’s space program, astronauts for every NASA crewed mission work with a NASA artist to design a mission patch that captures the mission objectives. It is worn on their flight suits and brands mission documentation. SSEP communities often use their selected flight patch designs on t-shirts, stickers, and lapel pins in the same way.

We invite communities participating in SSEP Missions 14-20 to use their Mission Patch competitions to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Landings on the Moon, and humans returning to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis Program starting in 2025.

Strategic Curricular Connections to Science and STEM

Students can design experiments in diverse science fields, including: seed germination, crystal growth, micro-encapsulation, chemical processes, physiology and life cycles of microorganisms (e.g. bacteria), cell biology and growth, food studies, and studies of micro-aquatic life. SSEP is therefore relevant across all science disciplines, and allows all teachers of science across a community to immerse students in a fully authentic process of scientific inquiry. A curriculum, and other resources for teachers and students, supports foundational instruction on both the cause and characteristics of a microgravity (weightlessness) environment; the science conducted in microgravity and why; guidance for proposal writing; and the experiment design process that flows from the key essential question–

The essential question driving experiment design:
What physical, chemical, or biological system would I like to explore with gravity seemingly turned off for a period of time, as a means of assessing the role of gravity in that system?

SSEP provides seamless integration across STEM disciplines through an authentic, high visibility research experience that correctly places content within a process landscape – an approach that embraces the Next Generation Science Standards, but also requires –

• design of an experiment in a Science discipline of choice
• a critical understanding of the space Technology, and associated spaceflight operations, used to transport payload to and from Low Earth Orbit and conduct microgravity experiments on ISS,
• a critical understanding of the Engineering specifications for the mini-laboratory, which provide real-world constraints on experiment design,
• Mathematics to design a viable experiment to operate in the mini-laboratory, through: refinement of sample (fluid and solid) concentrations and volumes, defining a timeline that is consistent with the experiment’s duration aboard ISS, and defining an approach to data analysis after the experiment returns to Earth.

In addition, student teams are writing real proposals that then go through a formal review process. This addresses vital skills in terms of historical research, technical writing and communications, and teamwork.

Through this authentic trans-disciplinary approach to STEM education, SSEP is designed to inspire and engage the next generation of scientists and engineers, and more generally, address STEM literacy. For school districts—even individual schools—SSEP provides an opportunity to implement a systemic, high caliber and authentic STEM education program tailored to community need. With the Mission Patch art and design competitions, SSEP is more appropriately designated an authentic STEAM initiative.

Appropriate Lead Institutions to Conduct this Program

The program is open to 5 categories of community, which provides a great deal of flexibility in implementing SSEP at the local level:

• Pre-College (the core focus for SSEP) in the U.S., (grades 5-12), with a participating school district—even an individual school—providing a stunning, real, on-orbit RESEARCH opportunity to their upper elementary, middle, and high school students
• 2-Year Community Colleges in the U.S., (grades 13-14), where the student body is typically from the local community, providing wonderful pathways for community-wide engagement
• 4-Year Colleges and Universities in the U.S., (grades 13-16), with an emphasis on Minority-Serving Institutions, where the program fosters interdisciplinary collaboration across schools and departments, and an opportunity for formal workforce development for science majors
• Communities in the U.S. led by Informal Education or Out-of-School Organizations, (e.g., a museum or science center, a home school network, a boy scout troop), because high caliber STEM education programs must be accessible to organizations that promote effective learning beyond the traditional classroom
• Communities Internationally: in European Space Agency (ESA) member nations, European Union (EU) member nations, Canada, and Japan with participation through NCESSE’s Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education. Communities in other nations should explore the potential for their participation by contacting the Institute.

SSEP’s Remarkable Program Heritage – Flight Opportunities to Date

Since program inception in June 2010, there have been 20 SSEP flight opportunities—SSEP on STS-134 and STS-135, which were the final flights of Space Shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis; and SSEP Missions 1 through 18 to ISS. A total of 242 communities have participated in the program, reflecting 42 States and the District of Columbia in the U. S.; 5 Provinces in Canada; and Brazil and Ukraine each conducting national competitions. Thus far 76 communities have participated in multiple flight opportunities – 31 communities conducting three or more flights – reflecting the sustainable nature of the program.

Through the first 20 flight opportunities (through Mission 18), a total of 161,900 grade 5-16 students across 3,480 schools were fully immersed in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing, 31,385 flight experiment proposals were received from student teams, and 421 experiments were selected for flight. Through Mission 17, 224,600 students across the entire grade preK-16 pipeline were engaged in their communities’ broader STEAM experience, submitting 195,000 Mission Patch designs.

381 of 421 experiments selected for flight through Mission 17 have now flown. 38 Mission 17 experiments launched on SpaceX-29, November 9, 2023, from Launch Complex (LC) 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – the same pad from which all the Apollo missions to the Moon launched. The Mission 17 experiments returned to Earth on December 22, 2023. Another 39 Mission 18 experiments are to launch on SpaceX-31 in October 2024.

For more information on SSEP Missions to date–

Explore the SSEP Launch and On-Orbit Operations History page, which provides a sense of the already rich history of the SSEP Program. Here you will find s list of SSEP missions and payload designations, videos of all SSEP launches, a list of all astronauts that have operated SSEP experiments, and videos of astronauts operating the experiments.

Explore the Flight Opportunities to Date page, which provides launch and landing dates, and information on the ferry spacecraft, astronaut crews aboard ISS during experiment operation, and the SSEP flight experiment payloads.

Explore the separate SSEP website – the SSEP Community Network Hubsite – which is dedicated to the participating communities and the over 1,600 organizational partners at the local level. At the Hubsite, you can read profiles of the participating communities, see a map of the Community Network, read about the selected flight experiments and flight Mission Patches, explore the over 1,400 media articles on SSEP, and watch videos of student teams reporting out at the SSEP National Conferences in Washington, DC.

NEW Flight Opportunity Starting September 2024 – We Invite Your Community to Come Aboard

September 13, 2024: Announcing SSEP Mission 20 to the International Space Station (ISS)

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education announce the 22nd SSEP flight opportunity – SSEP Mission 20 to ISS – which provides for an experiment design competition early (January to March) 2025, and a ferry flight for the selected flight experiments to ISS in Fall 2025. SSEP Mission 20 to ISS is currently the only SSEP flight opportunity available.

Time Available for Experiment Design:
Your Student Teams, led by your designated SSEP Local Team of Teacher Facilitators, will have 9 weeks from program start to proposal submission: January 6 to March 10, 2025. During this time, core activities include:

• introducing SSEP curricular content for foundational instruction on: the nature of microgravity, science conducted in microgravity, mini-laboratory operation, and experimental design
• defining student teaming, and facilitation of microgravity experiment design across all student teams
• each team writing a formal 5-page, grade level appropriate flight experiment proposal

Key Milestones:

• Experiment Design and Proposal Writing (9 weeks): January 6 – March 10, 2025
• Flight Experiment Proposals due to your lead institution: March 10, 2025
• Local Step 1 Review Board selects 3 finalist proposals, submits to NCESSE: March 18, 2025
• Formal selection of your community’s flight experiment: April 11, 2025
• Ferry Flight of SSEP Payload to ISS on SpaceX Dragon, estimated launch date: Fall 2025
• Ferry Flight of SSEP Payload back to Earth: typically Launch Plus 4 – 6 weeks
• SSEP National Conference for students: late June or early July 2025, most likely held at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

TIME CRITICAL
Letters of Commitment of Funding from Participating Communities: due January 3, 2025
Mission 20 to ISS Starts in Participating Communities: January 6, 2025

ASAP:
Interested communities are directed to contact NCESSE as soon as possible, but no later than October 31, 2024 [EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER 30, 2024], to explore participation. It typically takes 2-3 months in advance of program start to plan and fund the program in a community (funding with assistance from NCESSE if required – see below).

Contact:
Dr. Jeff Goldstein, SSEP National Program Director, at jeffgoldstein@ncesse.org
Center Director, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education

Download: Mission 20 Press Release (9/13/24), or View Online

For a deeper dive into SSEP program pedagogy and operations, explore the More on SSEP page (one of the buttons in the navigation banner above).

Program Basics

SSEP provides significant flexibility for a community to design a program to their strategic needs in STEM education—

• Appropriate Community Size: a community of any size can participate, including a small school district, an individual school, a large inner city or suburban district, a cluster of rural districts, a college, or a museum/science center or other informal education led community-based effort
• Required Student Engagement: a participating  pre-college community typically engages 300+ students in the grade 5-12 range (at least 100 students) in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing. For an undergraduate community, it is expected that at least 30 students will be engaged, corresponding to at least 10 proposal teams.
• Broader Student Engagement: a community can engage all students Grades K-16 in the mission patch art and design competitions. These competitions also provide the community an opportunity to extend SSEP participation to grade levels and student populations not involved in microgravity experiment design and proposal writing.
• Cost: (please read this entire paragraph) SSEP is a bold commercial space venture in partnership with Nanoracks LLC. It is not funded by NASA. The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, must recover the actual costs for the program, including: lease of commercial space for the experiment on the SpaceX rocket and aboard ISS; all flight services to and from low Earth orbit; SSEP program delivery; and ongoing support for the community. Each community has payload – their experiment – transported 250 miles above Earth’s surface, and safely returned to Earth after 4-6 weeks aboard ISS. This is expensive – it costs $30,000 USD for a community to participate. We recognize the significant challenge in securing underwriting in the current financial climate, but we do not want a community to be denied participation due to lack of funds. The Center is therefore committed to try and find funding for any community in the U.S. and Canada interested in participating, but is lacking in financial resources. This is, however, contingent on the availability of Center staff. The Center found full or partial funding for 233 of the 404 SSEP community programs undertaken as part of the first 20 SSEP flight opportunities, and we now have active relationships with a national network of a few hundred funders. If you are interested in this program, let us help. We have also assembled the following suite of resources for fundraising:
  • a bulleted list of powerful SSEP talking points that can be called upon when talking to a potential funder
  • extensive experience successfully talking to funders about SSEP on behalf of interested communities
  • databases of funders on a regional and local level, that allow us to rapidly do a search for appropriate funders
  • a template for a proposal to a funder that can be customized to a specific community

Strategic, National, and Local Partners

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. SSEP is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. NCESSE, the Clarke Institute, and Nanoracks are therefore designated SSEP Strategic Partners.  Visit the Strategic Partners page to read about their SSEP programmatic roles and responsibilities.

SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture. 

NCESSE and the Clarke Institute are proud to be working with the following National Partners on SSEP:

• in the U.S. – the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory

To read more about these partnerships, visit the National Partners and Sponsors page.

Partnership is truly a hallmark of SSEP. Over 1,600 organizations have supported SSEP at the local level, including: school districts, private schools, NASA Space Grant lead institutions and other universities, corporate foundations, businesses, community foundations, and local research institutions. These organizations are designated the SSEP Local Partners. To explore the Local Partners, visit the Community Profiles & Local Partners page at the Community Network Hubsite.

Vision

SSEP was designed to be a keystone initiative for U.S. National STEM education, and to help inspire America’s next generation of scientists and engineers. Through the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, the International arm of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, SSEP participation is also being expanded internationally to reflect the multinational complexion of ISS operations.

Phase 1 of SSEP was a unique and historic opportunity for students to propose experiments to fly aboard STS-134 and STS-135, the final flights of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program. We wanted the final voyages of the Space Shuttle to also mark a new beginning for student experiments in space, enabled by the new age of commercial space – the new private sector of companies providing transport services to and from low Earth orbit. This Phase 2 of SSEP provides communities of grade 5-16 students the ability to design and propose real microgravity experiments, just like professional researchers, for operation by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

We want SSEP to provide routine student researcher access to space via commercial payloads; to leverage the power of such access into a STEM education program delivered at the local level across an entire community; and to serve a network of such communities across the nation—even internationally.

To our children, who are America’s future in the 21^st century—
be part of history … by making history.

To schools and school districts committed to STEM education—
let us help your students step into the shoes of scientists and engineers … right now.

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENTS, DISTRICT SCIENCE OFFICES, PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS, AND OTHER COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS

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