By Kellye Voigt, Teacher Facilitator
Tin Whiskers Team Statement
Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
Mission 6 Re-Flight on SpaceX CRS-7 Launch
On Sunday, June 28, the SSEP team attempted to re-fly their tin whiskers experiment on the SpaceX CRS-7 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The student experiment was lost when the rocket failed and exploded about 2 minutes after launch. The
team was watching the launch from a safe distance at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex.
Tin Whiskers Team Statement
Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
Mission 6 Re-Flight on SpaceX CRS-7 Launch
On Sunday, June 28, the SSEP team attempted to re-fly their tin whiskers experiment on the SpaceX CRS-7 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The student experiment was lost when the rocket failed and exploded about 2 minutes after launch. The
team was watching the launch from a safe distance at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex.
This experiment consisted of a donated piece of the Space Shuttle Endeavour thathad flown in many missions. Scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center had reached out to the team after the loss of their original experiment on the Orb-3 launch out of Wallops Island, Virginia, on October 28, 2014, and kindly donated the piece to them. The piece was significant because it had already developed tin whiskers for them to study. The team was the final re-flight SSEP Mission 6 experiment from the Orb-3 failed launch. The team had turned down a flight opportunity on the SpaceX CRS-5 mission in January because they were working to get permission from NASA Toxicology and Nanoracks, LLC, to use the new experimental sample. All of the other Mission 6 experiments flew successfully on the SpaceX CRS-5 mission.This two-time experimental loss in the past 8 months has put the team in a unique
situation, and the team’s losses mirror a national concern about commercial spaceflight failures to low-Earth orbit in the past 8 months. The media picked up on the student team that has lost two experiments due to major launch failures and has been reaching out to them.
The team is positive despite the setbacks. With every setback, the experiment has grown stronger, and they have learned so much more about tin whiskers and electronics failures. They have strengthened their experimental design and gained experiences at NASA Goddard that are life changing. They have made contacts with scientists who have been encouraging and generous with their time, their knowledge, and their laboratories. A few minutes after the launch, our kind friends at NASA Goddard had already reached out to me, offering ice cream, condolences, and new experimental samples.
Thus, the team’s frustrations are mitigated by the belief that new opportunities will be open to them as a result of this setback. They are awaiting word from Jeff Goldstein, National Program Director of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, on when the next flight opportunity will occur. Once again, the experiment will be re-flown at no additional expense. This flight opportunity is not scheduled at this time because Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are America’s only spaceflight companies, and both companies are temporarily offline due to these launch failures.
We appreciate so much the support from our PSA family – faculty, school board, students, parents, and community. Many aspects of life do not go as planned, and these failed missions can serve as a safe but poignant means for students to understand and explore failure. We can all learn to measure our success by our response to failure. The tin whiskers team will lead the way.
situation, and the team’s losses mirror a national concern about commercial spaceflight failures to low-Earth orbit in the past 8 months. The media picked up on the student team that has lost two experiments due to major launch failures and has been reaching out to them.
The team is positive despite the setbacks. With every setback, the experiment has grown stronger, and they have learned so much more about tin whiskers and electronics failures. They have strengthened their experimental design and gained experiences at NASA Goddard that are life changing. They have made contacts with scientists who have been encouraging and generous with their time, their knowledge, and their laboratories. A few minutes after the launch, our kind friends at NASA Goddard had already reached out to me, offering ice cream, condolences, and new experimental samples.
Thus, the team’s frustrations are mitigated by the belief that new opportunities will be open to them as a result of this setback. They are awaiting word from Jeff Goldstein, National Program Director of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, on when the next flight opportunity will occur. Once again, the experiment will be re-flown at no additional expense. This flight opportunity is not scheduled at this time because Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are America’s only spaceflight companies, and both companies are temporarily offline due to these launch failures.
We appreciate so much the support from our PSA family – faculty, school board, students, parents, and community. Many aspects of life do not go as planned, and these failed missions can serve as a safe but poignant means for students to understand and explore failure. We can all learn to measure our success by our response to failure. The tin whiskers team will lead the way.