Archive | Program News

Endeavour Blasts off with the Aspirations of Thousands of Student Scientists Aboard

Space Shuttle Endeavour is now in orbit on her final mission. Aboard her are 16 experiments designed by (grade 5-13) student scientists from 16 communities across America. Yet these experiments reflect only some of the students that took part in the first flight opportunity for the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). Thousands of students—in dozens […]

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Get Ready NOW for Fall 2011: Routine SSEP Operations Begin on the International Space Station

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC, are proud to provide advanced word that starting in Fall 2011, the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program moves into Phase 2 with routine operations aboard the International Space Station (ISS)—America’s National Laboratory on the edge of space, and one of the most […]

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8:00 pm May 5, 2011: STS-134 Launch

NCESSE received word from NanoRacks/ITA late this afternoon that today’s meeting at NASA did not establish a definitive launch date, and that the launch is now defined as No Earlier Than (NET) May 12, which is a change from this morning’s No Earlier Than May 10. Our payload operations must therefore drive against a May […]

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Important Information for STS-135 Finalist Proposals: Read this Post Before Submitting to NCESSE

Three finalist proposals from each of the communities participating in SSEP on STS-135 are due to NCESSE NO LATER THAN 10:00 PM EDT MAY 13, 2011. As can be seen from the Critical Timeline, milestones for: finalist proposal submission, to selection of flight experiments, to winning team submissions of samples for the Fluid/Sample Compatibility Test, […]

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Impact on SSEP Experiments and Submission of New Samples, Due to NASA Announcement of New No-Earlier-Than May 10 Launch

We provided a schedule for 9 student teams to re-submit fresh experiment samples based on a no-earlier-than May 8 launch date in a SSEP National Blog Post dated May 1, 2011. It required arrival of samples at the payload processing lab no later than Thursday morning, May 5. In light of NASA’s announcement yesterday (May […]

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All 16 SSEP Experiments to be Reloaded in Mini-Lab in Prep for May 8 Endeavour Launch: Up to 9 Student Teams Re-submitting Experiment Samples

NCESSE received a de-brief this evening from NanoRacks and ITA regarding the plan for moving forward with payload flight readiness. We are now proceeding under the assumption of a May 8 launch. The MDA mini-laboratory will be flushed of all existing experiment samples and sterilized on Monday May 2. The reload of experiment samples will […]

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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.