Nine more experiments are being recovered, that miraculously survived the Columbia Space Shuttle's fiery disintegration on February 1st , today at the Kennedy Space Center. The hardware housing the experiments landed intact and was recovered in Nacogdoches, Texas. The experiments included two biomedical experiments designed to develop new treatments for cancer and metastasis, commercial space experiment and six student experiments. The first experiment to be recovered and opened dealt with Micro-Encapsulation of Drugs which is a drug delivery system for cancerous tumors and applies to medical research and applications on Earth. Instrumentation Technology Associates, Inc. (ITA) provides the service of flying experiments on the Shuttle for commercial clients and students.
ITA is the sponsor of the Urokinase Cancer Metastasis Program and with NASA and ITA jointly sponsor the Micro-Encapsulation of Drugs Program. The recovered student experiments include:
The Planetary Society's "Peace" experiment in which an Israeli and a Palestinian student jointly conducted an experiment investigating the survivability and growth of microorganisms under space conditions.
The Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School in Pembroke Pines, Florida had a tin crystal experiment to determine the effects of microgravity on tin crystal formation compared with those formed on earth.
Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas conducted a biofilm experiment to determine if free swimming planktonic or attached biofilm populations are affected by the microgravity environment and survive reentry.
Grade school students from Kemah and Bryan, Texas, Eagle Nest, New Mexico, and Moab, Utah flew inorganic crystal growth experiments, sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation Houston,Texas facility.
Milton Academy, a high school in Milton, Massachusetts conducted bacteria experiments.
Four of the nine experiments were sponsored by commercial companies seeking to use the unique microgravityenvironment of space to better understand new ways to design new drugs and medical treatments.
ITA's private sector student experiment program has spun-off a non-profit called Space Outreach which is dedicated to student space experiments and education.The track record of Space Outreach include over 40 student experiments flown , involving more than 3,000 students from across the US, France, Israel, Canada, Brazil, and Portugal over the past decade.
The experiments were flown on ITA's Commercial ITA Biomedical Experiments (CIBX) program and partners NASA-ITA experiments, part of a Space Act Agreement between NASA and ITA that allows for commercial microgravity experiments to be conducted on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. ITA is a proud Partner of the Space Day educational initiative, just celebrated internationally on May 1.
Photographs of the recovered hardware are available at Photos and more information about the company and ITA's memorial to the crew of Columbia can be found on the following web sites:
This Mews webpage was born on 08 May 2003
Last Modified 08 May 2003