NCESSE is Honored to Present the 21 Mission Patches – Selected From 5,960 Submissions, Launching October 7, 2012, with the SSEP Mission 2 to ISS Experiments Payload

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is proud to present the 21 Mission Patches selected for flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in Antares, the experiments payload for SSEP Mission 2 to ISS. Across the 11 communities participating in Mission 2 to ISS, 37,600 students were given the opportunity to participate in […]

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SpaceX-1 Spectacular Night Launch Set for October 7, 2012, with SSEP Antares and Aquarius II Experiment Payloads – SSEP Partner Organizations Invited to Send Delegations

Late last week, NASA formally announced that SpaceX-1 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:34 pm ET, October 7, 2012. (The NASA Press Release is provided below.) It will be the first operational flight of the Dragon spacecraft for International Space Station resupply. Aboard Dragon will be the Antares payload of 11 […]

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A Salute from SSEP to the End of the Shuttle Era – Thank You Endeavour | Teachers, Watch History Live with Your Students this Morning

Today, the U.S. Space Shuttle Program will take its final flight. At 8:15 am PDT this morning, Endeavour will begin a fly-over of northern California and the Los Angeles area atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. At about 12:45 pm PDT she will land at LAX, headed for permanent display at the California Science Center. […]

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SpaceX-1 Launch Now “October +”

TO ALL SSEP FLIGHT EXPERIMENT TEAMS The NASA Consolidated Launch Schedule now indicates that the SpaceX-1 Commercial Resupply Flight will launch “October +”.  This indicates a No Earlier Than (NET) launch date of at least October 1. The date of the launch therefore remains highly fluid, and no definitive information on a target launch date […]

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Re-flight of Entire SSEP Mission 1 Payload of Experiments – as Aquarius II – on Upcoming SpaceX Dragon Launch

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) is announcing a re-flight of the Aquarius payload of Mission 1 to ISS experiments due to activation/deactivation failure of the Fluids Mixing Enclosure (FME) mini-labs aboard ISS in May/June 2012. Re-flight of an “Aquarius II” payload of Mission 1 experiments will accompany the Mission 2 […]

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Smithsonian Showcases 2012 SSEP National Conference to be Held July 2-3

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum News and Events calendar for public events currently has the 2012 SSEP National Conference in their Spotlight showcase. See: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/  SSEP delegations from across the nation are flying into Washington, DC, this weekend to attend the Conference. The final Conference Schedule of events is now posted at the […]

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NASA TV Coverage of Soyuz 29S Return to Earth, July 1, 2012; SSEP Aquarius Payload of Mission 1 to ISS Experiments Aboard

NASA TV will be providing live coverage of the return to Earth of the Soyuz 29S spacecraft with astronauts Oleg Kononenko (Russia), Don Pettit (USA), and Andre Kuipers (ESA). Also aboard the vehicle will be the SSEP Aquarius payload of experiments that was launched on SpaceX Dragon on May 22, 2012. If you’ve been following […]

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In Our Own Words – SSEP Student Researcher Ryan Puri at Kennedy Space Center Press Site for Launch of SpaceX Dragon, May 2012

Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Co-Investigator Ryan Puri was part of the delegation from San Marino High School, in San Marino, CA, that was in attendance for the May 19, 2012, launch attempt of the SpaceX Dragon vehicle. The Aquarius payload of SSEP Mission 1 to ISS experiments aboard Dragon included the San Marino experiment: […]

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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. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. 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.