SSEP Mission 7 to the International Space Station (ISS)

Information to be determined is in RED TEXT below.
Information that is subject to change is in GREEN TEXT below.

Last update of this page: April 10, 2016, 8:56 am ET


Payload Ferry Flights and ISS Crew Data

Ferry Vehicle to ISS: SpaceX CRS-8 (SpaceX-8: Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft); Mission 7 payload originally on SpaceX CRS-7, rocket lost approximately 2.5 minutes after launch on June 28, 2015

Launch Date: April 8, 2016, 4:43 pm ET (useful reference NASA Consolidated Launch Schedule)
Crew: none
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Berthing at ISS: April 10, 2016 

Launch Date History:
Initial Launch Date: June 13, 2015
Rescheduled: to NET June 19, 2015
Rescheduled: to NET June 26, 2015
Rescheduled: to NET June 28, 2015 (SpaceX-7 rocket lost approximately 2 minutes after launch)

Manifested for re-launch on SpaceX-8: NET October 25, 2015
Rescheduled: to NET November 16, 2015
Rescheduled: (from November 2015-February 2016 launch dates and slips were not public and were unavailable for posting on the Flight Operations timeline)
Rescheduled: to March 30, 2016
Rescheduled
: to April 4, 2016
Rescheduled:
to April 8, 2016

Historical note: After a number of delays, Odyssey was set to launch on June 28, 2015, aboard SpaceX-7, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Over 120 SSEP delegates were on site to see the launch from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. All 27 experiments were lost on loss of rocket approximately 2.5 minutes after launch. The payload 0f 27 experiments has been reconstituted as the Odyssey II payload, and is awaiting re-launch aboard SpaceX-8.

For more information about the loss, see the following blog post:
Loss of SpaceX CRS-7 and Mission 7 Odyssey

Ferry Vehicle for Return to Earth: SpaceX-8
Crew: none
Unberth/Landing Date: May 11, 2016 (Dragon separation from ISS expected 9:26 am EDT; splashdown expected 2:56 pm EDT)
Landing Site: splashdown off the Pacific Coast of California
Payload Duration on ISS: 4 weeks

Notable: visit the NASA ISS website for a comprehensive overview of ISS construction, on-orbit research, operations, crews, and multimedia galleries; read about the Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket; read about the SpaceX Falcon rocket and Dragon spacecraft at nasa.gov; read about the Soyuz TMA vehicle at nasa.gov

ISS Crew for SSEP Mission 7 Payload Operations: likely Expedition 47/48
(see Expeditions Schedule at nasa.gov)
Station Commander Timothy Kopra (USA; Twitter @astro_tim); Flight Engineers Timothy Peake (ESA; Twitter @astro_timpeake), Yuri Malenchenko (Russia), Jeff Williams (USA; Twitter @Astro_Jeff, Instragram @astro_jeffw, Facebook NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams), Alexey Ovchinin (Russia), and Oleg Skriprochka (Russia).


SSEP Mission 7 to ISS: Payload and Program Data

Payload Designation: SSEP9 – Odyssey (named for Apollo 13 Command Module; starting with Mission 5 to ISS, SSEP experiments payloads are named for Apollo Command Modules; prior to Mission 5, payloads were named for Apollo Lunar Modules). Reconstituted SSEP9b – Odyssey II after the loss of the payload on SpaceX-7.

Number of Student Team Flight Experiments: 23 (1 of 24 M7 communities, Duluth, MN, is not re-flying their experiment as part of Odyssey II)
Payload: Suite of Fluids Mixing Enclosure (FMA – Mark II) Mini-laboratories
Stowage: NanoRacks Express Rack on ISS

History:
The ninth SSEP flight opportunity—SSEP Mission 7 to the International Space Station—was announced by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education on April 21, 2014, with accompanying Video Clips describing SSEP by Center Director, Dr. Jeff Goldstein: Clip 1, Clip 2

Current Status:
SSEP Mission 7 re-flight experiments launched on April 8, 2016 at 4:43 am out of Cape Canaveral, FL. Dragon arrived at ISS on Sunday, April 10, 2016. 

A List of Important SSEP Mission 7 to ISS Subpages:
SSEP Mission 7 to ISS: Critical Timeline
SSEP Mission 7 to ISS: Mini-Laboratory Operation
SSEP Mission 7 to ISS: Mission Patch Art and Design Competition
SSEP Mission 7 to ISS: Re-Flight Operations
→ Mission 7 to ISS Experiment Log
Launch Viewing Plans for SpaceX-7, Summer 2015
Re-Launch Viewing Plans for SpaceX-8, April 2016

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.