KUSA- A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida Friday afternoon and headed for the International Space Station. It is carrying a experimental form of additional living space for the crew, which could be used for deep space human exploration, such as a future mission to Mars. The first-stage of the SpaceX launch system returned to Earth and landed on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean -- a first ever for space flight.
Also onboard the Falcon 9 were several Colorado experiments, including one belonging to a group of sixth grade students from Littleton. They were anxious about this launch for good reason.
As the hours ticked down to launch, the Mount Carbon elementary students felt an investment in it --two years in the making.
“I know at my house, we’ve kind of been the ladybug keepers,” said student Kylie Dappen.
9NEWS first brought you the story of this group last summer, as the students prepared their experiment involving ladybugs for a voyage to the International Space Station. However, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying their experiment exploded two minutes after liftoff.
The students learned a tough lesson.
“Anything can happen at any time,” Kulie said, “like, a rocket can blew up out of anywhere.”
They didn’t give up, though, and went back to the start -- recreating their ladybug experiment once more.
“It’s been so long, since we’ve been trying to work on this,” said student Meghan Simpson. “Going back and forth and doing everything twice or three times.”
They’re trying to figure out whether zero-gravity can affect the lifecycle of ladybugs and what that can tell us about how space affects living beings.
“We thought it might speed up or slow down the life cycle,” said student Maddison Gargiulo.
For Ben Hariyadi, the rocket carried something else --a special patch he designed will be worn on the suit of one of the astronauts on the ISS. It also carried his aspirations.
“I might take an aviation class when I’m in high school or college,” he said.
In this case, the second launch was a charm.
“It’s just been really fun and we’ve learned a lot from this, too,” Kylie said.
Astronauts onboard the International Space Station will carry out the ladybug experiment. The students hope to get the results back in the next two months.
