CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – April 30, 2021 – DreamUp, the leader in space-based educational offerings, is proud to announce the installation on the International Space Station of CHIME, the company’s first payload on a crewed mission. The student-designed Nanolab experiment traveled to the Space Station with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur as well as JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The Crew Dragon containing the crew and payload departed on SpaceX’s Crew-2 rocket launch on Friday, April 23 at 5:49 AM EDT.
This educational payload, built by students from New York University Abu Dhabi is the first Nanolab experiment to launch through the Tests in Orbit program, an International Space Station student experiment design competition, providing students hands-on experience with microgravity experiments, building their interest and skills in STEM. Tests in Orbit is hosted by the United Arab Emirates Space Agency and the Higher Colleges of Technology, in partnership with DreamUp and Nanoracks.
The CHIME project challenges the student team to design a payload that tests the viability in microgravity of a novel microfluidics-based cell growth platform, which can be used in future Space Station investigations with applications in medicine and biological science. The Crew Dragon docked to the Space Station on Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 5:10 AM EDT, where it will remain for approximately 30 days.
The CHIME team is comprised of a multinational group of undergraduate students led by NYU Abu Dhabi senior and Computer Science major, Shantanu Jain. Of the experience, Shantanu said, “Developing this novel payload was the chance of a lifetime to contribute to understanding human health in space, and we’re grateful to the UAE Space Agency and its partners for their continued support.”
Lauren Milord, Director of Programs for DreamUp said, “This historic launch of the CHIME payload is the product of years of work and collaboration, both by the students involved, but also through a deep partnership between government, commercial, and educational actors both in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. I couldn’t be prouder of these students’ hard work. They persevered through both the expected challenges of developing a spaceflight experiment but also through the unexpected challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. I congratulate them, as well as our counterparts at the UAE Space Agency, HCT, and Nanoracks.”
These launch opportunities were made possible via our partnership with Nanoracks and its Space Act Agreements with NASA and the ISS National Lab.
For additional media inquiries, please email us at info@dreamup.org, and for continued updates, be sure to follow @DreamUp_Space on Twitter and Instagram.
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About DreamUp
Based in Washington, DC, DreamUp is the first company bringing space into the classroom and the classroom into space. Uniquely positioned to inspire kids globally and engage them through scientific discoveries in space, DreamUp aims to foster an educational community where space-based research and projects will be available to all learners of all ages. DreamUp has a proven track record with more than 400 student research payloads from around the world launched on SpaceX and Northrop Grumman rockets to the International Space Station via a partnership with Nanoracks and its Space Act Agreement with NASA. For more information, visit https://www.dreamup.org/.
