MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - Ector County Independent School District has been accepted in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 13 to the International Space Station (ISS) for the second year in a row.
SSEP is designed as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education initiative, and gives students the opportunity to become researchers where they can design and propose real microgravity experiments to be conducted by an astronaut aboard the ISS.
At the ECISD administration building, Judges from around the community will evaluate the submissions from campuses competing in the SSEP from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Nov. 5.
Three winning scientific proposals will be submitted to a national selection committee assembled by National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), which will select one flight experiment proposal to be sent to the ISS in 2019.
An astronaut aboard the ISS will conduct the experiment, and after a typical 4 to 6 week stay in orbit, the experiment will be returned safely to Earth for harvesting and analysis by the school’s student flight team.
The three finalists selected by ECISD may also can attend the SSEP National Conference next summer in Washington, D.C. that is hosted by the NCESSE.