Quick Facts:
- Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance teamed up with Flight Night to send student experiments to space
- Students competed for a chance to have their experiment sent to space
- 3 experiments from Oklahoma are in space, all 3 are from Green Country
January 12, 2021 UPDATE:
After spending a month in space, the experiments designed by three Green Country teams are headed back to Earth.
Tuesday morning, January 12th, the SpaceX capsule undocked from the International Space Station. That happened at 8:05 AM. The capsule will make its way back to Earth with splashdown happening around 7:30 Wednesday evening in the Gulf of Mexico off the Tampa coast.
This undocking was historic this morning because it was the first time a U.S. commercial cargo craft autonomously departed from the station’s International Docking Adapter.
Once the experiments have made it back to Earth, it will take a couple of days before the students have their experiments in hand.
FOX23 Meteorologist Megan McClellan is staying in touch with the students while they anxiously await their experiments.
December 2020 UPDATE:
The experiments have launched and are spending a month aboard the International Space Station. Students, teachers and parents are anxiously awaiting their return.
November 2020 UPDATE:
A date has been set for the experiments to head to space. The current launch date is December 5th and the experiments would be loaded onto the International Space Station that weekend!
The experiments should spend about a month on the Space Station before heading back to Earth.
One of the student groups made a video of them packing their experiments: WATCH VIDEO HERE
Here is a gallery of the students packing up their experiments to send to Florida before the launch.
February 2020 UPDATE: 3 teams have been chosen to have their experiments sent to space!
After months of research, studying and judging, the three teams to represent Oklahoma with their experiments in space have been chosen!
All three of the teams are from Green Country with two from Summit Christian Academy and one from Jenks Southeast Elementary School.
The video above gives a nice overview of what we can expect from these students, but here are the full interviews available for each team!
WEAR-FLEX RUBBER COMPOUND
SEA MONKEYS IN SPACE
REGENERATION IN MICROGRAVITY
Retired Col. United States Air Force, Former Astronaut Paul Lockhart on Space and Women in STEM
UPDATE: 5 finalists have been chosen and will fine-tune their experiments in the coming weeks. Winning teams will be announced the first week of December with the experiments going to space in May or June of 2020.
Here are some pictures from the event shared with FOX23 by the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance.
Original Story
Have you ever dreamed of being a scientist in space? NOW is your chance!
The Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance is teaming up with Flight Night to provide the opportunity to Oklahoma students the chance to have their experiments sent to space.
Xan Black with the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance and Bailey Siegfried are both excited about this opportunity for students.
If teachers and students are interested, they have until September 20th to register. You can register on the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance website.
For those already thinking about what type of experiments they are looking for, FOX23 asked:
Judging is going to take place in different phases. They'll accept the registrations then everyone will present in October. From there, the pool will be downsized to 5 and after fine-tuning those 5 experiments, the judges will pick 3 to be sent to space and have the experiments conducted on the International Space Station!
Judges will be looking for a few different things: