What do Cheerleaders, Flies and Cancer Research Have in Common?
Houston, TX-May 12, 2014 — NanoRacks is excited to have continued broad participation aboard the International Space Station (ISS) through partnerships with citizen and student scientists on the SpaceX-3.
The launch occurred on April 18th from Cape Canaveral, FL. NanoRacks is hosting four payloads on the International Space Station that incorporate work from over eight institutions, both domestic and international. NanoRacks is pleased to have launched two of the seven winners of the Space Florida International Space Station Research Competition on the SpaceX CRS-3 launch.
“The breadth and range of these latest experiments vividly shows how utilization of the International Space Station has accelerated,” said NanoRacks CEO Jeff Manber. “We want to thank all our partners with a special shout-out to Space Florida for their ISS Research Competition program”
The on-station payloads included work of students and researchers from UCDavis, Stanford University, Ohio State University, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, NASA Ames, NASA JSC, Texas Southern University, Savannah State, Jarvis Christian College, Tougaloo College, and Prairie View A & M (NASA’s ISS Tier2/Tier3 University Research Project), the Science Cheerleaders, and the German space agency, DLR.
NanoRacks ISS facilities and services are made possible via a space act agreement with NASA. Each of the four payloads launched had a unique mission:
MERCCURI: Microbiologists from UCDavis and the Science Cheerleaders, along with thousands of other citizen scientists from SciStarter, are working to compare the growth of microbes from built environments on Earth with their growth on ISS. They will compare types of microbes found on Earth with those found by astronauts aboard the ISS.
UR-1: Researchers and students from Texas Southern University, Savannah State, Jarvis Christian College, Tougaloo College, and Prairie View A & M (NASA’s first ISS Tier2/Tier3 University Research Project (thus, UR-1)) are focusing on Pharmacology, Immunology, and Cancer research through the NanoRacks platform, with the goal to investigate countermeasures that could “modulate and augment the immune system” focusing on Pharmacology, Immunology, and Cancer research through the NanoRacks platform, with the goal to investigate countermeasures that could “modulate and augment the immune system.”
(See photo of the UR-1 team holding the NanoRacks 2.5U that is being turned over for flight)
HeartFlies: Stanford University, Ohio State University, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and NASA Ames launched HeartFlies. HeartFlies is a medical experiment set to understand the effects of space travel on astronaut cardiovascular systems.
Cancer CellBox: Germany’s DLR is carrying out experiments on “scavenger cells” of the human immune system and on human thyroid cancer cells. CellBox will study changes in cellular and molecular function as a result of microgravity. NanoRacks was the first commercial provider that commissioned for transporting and carrying out experiments for the German Space Agency, DLR. Through the CellBox mission, DLR is trying new ways to offer German scientists cost-effective options for carrying out experiments in space.
About NanoRacks:
NanoRacks, LLC – was founded in 2009 in Houston, Texas. They are the market leader in commercialized and scheduled space operations on the ISS via a Space Act Agreement with NASA and their own hardware inside and outside the ISS. To date, over 150 payloads have been delivered to space under the direction of NanoRacks.