The centrifuge enhances NanoRacks’ existing suite of lab equipment aboard the space station, which includes microscopes and a plate reader used to detect biological, chemical or physical activity in samples.

Astrium Space Transportation handed over the research centrifuge to NanoRacks LLC, during a ceremony Tuesday, Feb. 14 in Houston. Astrium North America adapted the centrifuge — originally built for use on space shuttle missions — for use in the station’s NanoRacks Platform-3. The commercial research team funded the centrifuge.

To read more, visit the NASA website or download the Press Release here.

NASA to Deliver Commercial Research Equipment to Station

(Houston, Texas) Astrium North America is proud to announce that Astrium Space Transportation and NanoRacks LLC have teamed up to offer a cost‐effective, commercial centrifuge facility for the International Space Station.

Astrium Space Transportation is handing over on the 14th of February to NanoRacks LLC a gravitational research centrifuge marking a new era of commercial utilization of the U.S. National Lab. The handover will take place at Astrium North America’s Houston facility.

The centrifuge will allow researchers to perform research under various gravity levels, including Mars and Moon conditions or as 1‐G control to contrast results with microgravity projects conducted on the space station.

Astrium North America is pleased to be involved in this truly commercial and collaborative project with NanoRacks, working together with NASA toward the enhancement of science facility capabilities on ISS. “This centrifuge facility is a first small step in adding commercially available science facilities to the ISS, but we think one in the right direction, and look forward to similar developments and collaborations in the near future” said Carl Kuehnel, Senior Project Manager Astrium North America.

“We are delighted to permanently house the Astrium centrifuge on our third NanoRacks’ Platform, one dedicated to basic and industrial research, with higher power than our first two Platforms now on space station” said Jeffrey Manber, Managing Director of NanoRacks . The NR‐3 Platform, along with the Astrium Centrifuge, are manifested on the Russian cargo ship Progress scheduled to be launched to the space station in the summer of 2012.

The hardware, and its home on NanoRacks Platform‐3, has been solely funded by the two companies in a demonstration of support for researchers’ needs for sophisticated research tools in low‐earth orbit. The ability of the NanoRacks’ Platform and the Centrifuge to be produced in a short period of time at low cost shows that the private sector has a critical role to play in supporting the infrastructure in low‐earth orbit and beyond. Both companies expect more announcements in the near future on further joint projects.

Astrium North America is able to provide existing high‐quality life science equipment developed by Astrium Space Transportation and supported by Kayser Italia to US companies for commercial use. Astrium North America continues to pursue opportunities to leverage existing, quality life science equipment from Europe giving commercial space companies a production edge. “Leveraging off the shelf, space tested life science hardware can be a great benefit to a commercial space project” said Ron Dunklee, CEO Astrium North America. Please contact Astrium North America for a complete catalog of existing life science hardware.

About Astrium North America

Founded in 1973, Astrium North America is a U.S. based corporation, with affiliations to Astrium Space Transportation, specializing in external cargo carrier development, experiment and payload processing, life and physical sciences hardware, integration services, operations, program and project management, software engineering, and flight simulation and training for the international aerospace community. Please visit http://www.astrium‐na.com or call (832) 224‐4544 and follow us at @astriumna.

About NanoRacks

NanoRacks LLC was formed in 2009 to provide quality hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. The company developed and has two research platforms onboard the U.S. National Laboratory which can house plug and play payloads using the CubeSat form factor. The current signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads including domestic and international educational institutions, research organizations and government organizations, has propelled NanoRacks into a leadership position in understanding the emerging commercial market for low‐earth orbit utilization. Visit us at http://www.nanoracks.com and follow us at @nanoracks.

Download the pdf.

Commercial Centrifuge Facility for the ISS

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR GRAVITATIONAL AND SPACE BIOLOGY STUDENT EXPERIMENT TO FLY AS NANORACKS PAYLOAD ON U.S. NATIONAL LAB, THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

San Jose, California USA – November 3, 2011

The American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB), a U.S. non-profit 501(C)(6) scientific society, announces today an agreement has been signed with NanoRacks (Houston, Texas) to fly a student space flight experiment on-board the NASA International Space Station (ISS). NanoRacks is an industry leader in low-earth orbit space services NanoRacks. NanoRacks, LLC is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement for the use of the U.S. National Lab. ASGSB has entered into an agreement with NanoRacks as a result of an industry partnership agreement with the Science and Technology Corporation (STC). STC is a small, high-technology company that has experience in nano-satellite and space instrument development. www.stcnet.com/

ASGSB and the NASA Ames Research Center Space Biosciences Division are collaborating to bring an interdisciplinary team of students together to address innovative problems of Space Biology and develop the student light experiment. This past summer, a small student team was competitively selected to study Insect Flight Aerodynamics and Biology in Altered Gravity Environments. This student experiment is being prepared to fly as the ASGSB light opportunity with NanoRacks. The summer project brought students from aeronautics, biology and engineering together and focused on the development of a novel, imaging capability to perform quantitative aerodynamic and behavioral analysis of insect light under altered gravity conditions. Several members of the student team are presenting scientific posters at the ASGSB meeting being held in San Jose, CA November 3rd, 2011. NASA Ames Research Center scientists Dr. Jeffrey Smith and Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya mentored the student team. With the success of this initial pilot student project, Ames and ASGSB are now working toward a formal agreement that can expand this educational opportunity to inspire and train the next generation of gravitational and space biologists.

A mid 2012 launch date is being planned. ASGSB executive director, Cindy Martin-Brennan says “we are forging a new quadrilateral agreement with between ASGSB, a gravitational science society who fosters young scientists; NanoRacks, a commercial space service provider; STC, a private company that values investment in the next generation; and NASA scientist mentors who believe it is critical to train the next generation of scientists. I think this is the first agreement of its kind that enables hands-on space biology light experience to the next generation of scientists and ex-plorers”.

Download the pdf.

ASGSB Signs With NanoRacks

At the signing ceremony in Riyhadi, Saudi Arabia, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, KACST President, stressed the importance of technology in order to assure the next generation of Saudi students remain competitive on the world stage. Mr. Jeffrey Manber, managing director of NanoRacks, echoed Dr. Al-Suwaiyel in agreeing that education is one of the most valuable aspects of any international cooperation such as the program that has brought NanoRacks and KACST together.

In addition to the signing ceremony, NanoRacks and KACST also hosted a workshop to introduce students and educators to the opportunities available via NanoRacks and the U.S. National Lab on International Space Station. http://www.kacst.edu.sa/en/about/media/news/Pages/news278.aspx Lead by Dr. Haitham Abdulaziz Altwaijri, the supervisor of the Space Research Institute, along with Mr. Christopher Cummins, CFO and COO of NanoRacks, the workshop was clearly well appreciated and caught the attention of a number of Saudi schools and students.

At NanoRacks, the program with KACST, which is both the Saudi space agency and national research labs, shows yet again that the U.S. National Lab on International Space Station is truly a world class resource that is attracting the best and brightest to work together. For NanoRacks, this is yet another step in showing how the commercial path can generate robust utilization in low earth orbit.

All of us at NanoRacks look forward to growing the partnership with KACST in the years to come.

NanoRacks and KACST Announce Educational Space Station Program

“This move consolidates services for our customers that previously have been taking place with external partners,” explains Center manager Rob Alexander. “Our customers will benefit from having NanoRacks control every aspect of their payload process, from integration, testing, manifesting, safety and mission control operations during our space station missions.”

NanoRacks’ customers–including commercial researchers, students and governmental programs, can now bring their International Space Station payloads to the Houston facility where the company will handle all the steps necessary for inclusion onto NASA’s U.S. National Lab on International Space Station. “This will allow us to keep our already historically low costs for space research as low as possible while further streamlining mission operations,” explains Alexander.

Says Michael Johnson, chief technology officer, “the opening of the NanoRacks’ payload and communications center means that over the next month or so we are saying goodbye to several partners, including our friends at Kentucky Space and University of Kentucky. But we look forward working soon in other ways with Kris Kimel, James Lumpp and all the great Kentucky students that took part during our first year of operations.”

About NanoRacks

NanoRacks LLC provides quality hardware and commercial services for the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. NanoRacks allows customers to access our multiple research platforms onboard the U.S. National Laboratory which can house plug and play payloads as well as other sophisticated research hardware.

The current signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads has propelled NanoRacks into a unique position in understanding the emerging commercial market for low-earth orbit utilization. Longer term, as humanity ventures more and more into low-earth orbit and beyond, NanoRacks’ will be there providing the best quality space goods and services at competitive prices.

Download the pdf.

NanoRacks Opens Customer Operations Center

In the coming months we will be working with CASIS to explore how together we can maximize the customer experience and raise commercial utilization of low-earth orbit to a whole new level.

In the meantime, we continue to work on developing our facilities and as we learn more about the launch schedule post Progress investigation, we will let you know.

Launch of National Lab

It’s been a strange experience. Multiple times over the past couple of weeks, Mike Johnson and his team have found themselves helping companies understand our system and our weak points. Why are we helping other companies? The hope is that we are on the cusp of having an “ecosystem” of multiple products designed to leverage services for customers using our facilities.

We consider these tools the space program equal to apps–products designed to make it easier for the customer to access data from space station research operations. If another company has a great app for our hardware, that’s fantastic.

Recently, Pumpkin of CubeSat fame, http://www.cubesatkit.com/content/news.html unveiled a similar off the shelf offering for NanoLabs. The Pumpkin hardware allows a customer to have a fully operating NanoLab all ready to go, leaving one free to devote their energy and time to the research, and not building the hardware.

“New products announced include the NanoLab Kit™ — a development environment for the ISS-based NanoRacks® — and the CubeSat Kit™ PPM E1,” – Pumpkin

This is what we mean by an ecosystem. And the Pumpkin NanoLab is the first of what we hope is a long product line for low-earth orbit operations, not to mention sub-orbital and beyond.

Creating an EcoSystem

The six person crew onboard the station is unaffected. There are also ample supplies. We are confident the Russian authorities will quickly pinpoint this, the first Russian hardware failure during ISS.

Finally, this again validates the international policy of the station whereby multiple nations and commercial programs contribute.

Progress Cargo Ship Failure

To learn more, go to http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/sbirsttr2011/solicitation/SBIR/TOPIC_O3.html#O3.02

If any company or university wishes to learn more about our facilities just drop us a line.

NASA 2011 SBIR Supports NanoRacks System

In giving us this recognition, SFF noted:

Nanoracks is a fantastic model for a successful commercial space company, and they are showing that beneficial science and profit can go hand in hand. Their research modules are flying on the ISS and their business is strong back on earth. The SFF also salutes their slogan, “Space for Everyone.”

What makes this recognition doubly sweet is that the last two recipients of the Vision to Reality Award were SpaceX in 2009 and Masten Space in 2010–two ventures we admire very much.

The award is being given out this Saturday July 30th at the New Space 2011 conference in San Jose, California. I’ll go out and represent everyone at NanoRacks, even though I just learned it is a black tie event—despite that, thanks to everyone at SFF who voted to give us this outstanding recognition from our colleagues in the commercial space community.

These are special times in the industry when the emergence of commercial space ventures is at long last moving indeed from “Vision to Reality.”

Recognition!

Included in that payload was the Israeli’s Fisher Institute’s second series of programs with us. By our reckoning, that deactivation was probably one of the final payloads to be shut down by the Atlantis crew, and hence one of the last payloads of the Space Shuttle era.

Also onboard was NCESSE with 11 school districts doing biological payloads, and several other commercial projects. It is easy to slip too easily into symbolism. But we like the fact that one of the last payloads, if not the last, was a commercial payload, paid for by an industry group from Israel and arranged by NanoRacks. Because this sort of arrangement is without a doubt the future of low-earth orbit utilization. Commercial. International. Entrepreneurial. With NASA astronauts as enablers.

Looking forward this trend will only accelerate at NanoRacks. We are flying again on the late October Progress Mission. On Soyuz 29. Then the Japanese HTV-3. Then on the American SpaceX 1. Our customers are American and foreign, all looking to utilize the U.S. National Laboratory. Our new customer manifest will be up and running in a few days.

This is what national leadership is all about—and its something we can all be proud of. That during this difficult period of the launch ‘gap’, when NASA astronauts will rely on the commercial launch services of the Russians, scientists, researchers and students from across the world will look to NASA’s U.S. National Lab and some to NanoRacks’ commercial hardware and services, to fully utilize the unique environment of low-earth orbit. Maybe for many in the media its not as sexy as rockets, but it is about reaping at long last the rewards for spending a decade building the International Space Station.

My first shuttle launch was STS-3; I don’t know the year right now, but I was young enough or foolish enough to arrive far too early and went to sleep in the late night on the grass by the countdown clock. I remember the excitement for the future; an excitement I haven’t really felt again until now. This time, when it comes to low-earth orbit, I think we finally have it right.

A New Chapter Called Utilization

Astrium and Nanoracks plan to provide a gravitational research platform as part of NASA’s U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station. The proposed system provides the first commercial access to a centrifuge facility (on the ISS/in Space) for biology and life science experiments.

Friedrichshafen – Germany, 27.6.2011
Astrium and Nanoracks plan to outfit a platform for microgravity investigations with a centrifuge for gravitational research. The proposed centrifuge system, based on a standard experiment container system, was developed by Astrium for ESA more than 25 years ago and has been used for more than 120 experiments for various topics. The joint facility shall allow a continuation of this research and for the first time allow commercial users access to an in orbit centrifuge for 1-g reference and threshold studies.

Experiments from various research topics, mainly in biology and life science can hereby make use of a large inventory of pre-flown designs from previous space missions to shorten the time from a new idea to the execution in orbit to less than 1 year. The portfolio of pre-flown hardware includes among others, Mini-Aquariums, Seed Germination Boxes, Plant Growth Chambers, Mammalian and Plant Cell Culture Units, and Drosophila Multi-Generation Chambers. The platform offers capabilities for observation and fixation of the samples or specimen. Experimenters also have access to other Nanoracks laboratory equipment already in orbit.

NanoRacks currently operates two platforms l within the ISS U.S. National Lab and has announced plans to launch an array of additional facilities, including a Plate Peader for microbiological analysis in 2012 ,further enhancing the experimental capabilities for biological and life science research. The facility shall be operated under Nanoracks’ Space Act Agreement with NASA as part of NASA’s U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station.

About Nanoracks
NanoRacks LLC was formed in 2009 to provide quality hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. The Company has two research platforms onboard the U.S. National Laboratory which can house plug and play payloads using the CubeSat form factor. The current signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads including domestic and international educational institutions, research organizations and government organizations, has propelled NanoRacks into a leadership position in understanding the emerging commercial market for low-earth orbit utilization. Visit us at www.nanoracks.com and follow us at @nanoracks.

About Astrium
Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2008, Astrium had a turnover of €4.3 billion and more than 15,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, Astrium Services for the development and delivery of satellite services and Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure.

Download the full Press Release.

Astrium and NanoRacks Announce Centrifuge Agreement

Since its formation in 2009, NanoRacks has developed, launched and now operates a commercial space research facility as part of the U.S. National Lab onboard the International Space Station. The company provides a historically low-cost, commercial path to both the ISS and beyond and today enjoys a backlog of over 50 commercial payloads representing both domestic and international organizations and companies.

Managing Director Jeffrey Manber commented that “these funds will be used to facilitate even further the use of our hardware onboard the International Space Station’s U.S. National Lab and allow us to grow to the next level as an organization. We appreciate that these funds come from both sophisticated space investors and those who consider low-earth orbit a stable marketplace with the operational status of the International Space Station.” Added Manber, “NanoRacks believes that we have entered a new chapter in space utilization in part thanks to the commitment by NASA and its supporters to allow commercial services in low-earth orbit.”

NanoRacks has been awarded a NASA contract to develop a Plate Reader for on-orbit analysis; the facility will be owned and marketed by the Company, it also enjoys a Phase 1 SBIR to design a sophisticated, more powerful research platform for use onboard the U.S. National Lab on ISS and has numerous contracts with research organizations, educational organizations from high school to university, and government organizations. Its main production facility is located in Houston, Texas.

Near Earth LLC, a New York based investment bank acted as the private placement agent. Hoyt Davidson of Near Earth commented: “I want to congratulate the team at NanoRacks, LLC for the successful close of their private capital raise. We are very proud to have been a part of this important financing for what we believe is one of commercial space industry’s most promising new companies.

This success was achieved in large part due to several key factors, including NanoRacks’: (i) government friendly, yet commercial focus and its success in penetrating both NASA and nongovernment markets; (ii) contractual backlog and customer prospects building momentum throughout the placement process; (iii) ability to sell more than just the vision to investors, but also the business model and the market opportunity; and (iv) willingness and determination up front to provide new investors with an attractive risk / reward opportunity.

Download the full Press Release and follow future developments on twitter at @nanoracks.

NanoRacks Announces Completion of Seed Round of Financing

Houston, Texas, June 09, 2011 – Odyssey Space Research, L.L.C., today announced a space-based, experimental app, dubbed SpaceLab for iOS, which will be used for space research aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The SpaceLab for iOS app will make its way to the ISS on an iPhone 4 aboard the orbiter Atlantis on the space shuttle fleet’s historic final mission, STS-135, and will remain there for several months for the ISS crew to conduct a series of experiments.

Odyssey also announced it is bringing the astronauts’ on-orbit experimental tasks down to earth for “terrestrial” consumers to enjoy via the SpaceLab for iOS app available today from the App Store.

The SpaceLab for iOS app will utilize the innovative features of iPhone 4, including the three-axis gyro, accelerometer, Retina display, cameras and A4 chip, for space-based research. The crew will conduct various experiments to collect data which could one day find use in practical applications, such as the recovery of navigation information for a spacecraft that might be “lost in space.”

A ground-based user of the SpaceLab for iOS app will be able to conduct the same experiments with certain features simulated to account for the presence of gravity.

“The revolutionary iPhone 4 offers an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate serious functions previously reserved for more expensive, purpose-built devices,” said Brian Rishikof, Odyssey’s Chief Executive Officer. “The potential for using iPhone 4 to both conduct and support in-space research and operations is enormous. The opportunity to make the experience accessible to anyone via the App Store will attract a new generation of space supporters.”

iPhone 4 was certified for spaceflight and is being transported to the ISS on the space shuttle via NanoRacks, LLC of Houston, Texas, who provide low-cost hardware and integration services for the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the ISS. They will house an iPhone 4 in their NanoLab, a small microgravity research platform destined for the ISS.

“Everyone at NanoRacks is excited about being part of this new chapter in our space program,” explains Jeffrey Manber, NanoRacks Managing Director. “Leveraging the innovation of such an iconic consumer product to conduct tasks once reserved for space-only hardware is without a doubt the next step in our utilization of space. Bringing iPhone 4 and Odyssey’s technology with us on this final space shuttle mission is symbolic of the new direction of our space program.”

With an opportunity for return to Earth on the Russian Soyuz vehicle next fall, actual flight data from the experiments are expected to be collected, analyzed, and shared so that educators, students, scientists and space enthusiasts can recreate the experiments as if onboard the ISS itself.

The SpaceLab for iOS app is available now for $0.99 from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

About Odyssey Space Research, L.L.C.
Odyssey Space Research, L.L.C. is an award winning spacecraft engineering, analysis, and research company, located in Houston, Texas near the NASA Johnson Space Center. The Company’s core skills are in the domain of Guidance, Navigation & Control (GN&C), software and system engineering with noted specialization in rendezvous, and proximity operations.

Odyssey is currently providing spacecraft development support to SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies, Corp.), Orbital Sciences Corporation, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and NASA, as well as International Space Station integration support to NASA for spacecraft from the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Company is committed to ensuring the safe and successful flight of every vehicle and mission. For more information, visit www.odysseysr.com.

About NanoRacks, LLC
NanoRacks LLC is dedicated to providing low-cost, commercial access to the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. The Company has two research platforms onboard the U.S. National Laboratory, which can house plug and play payloads using the CubeSat form factor. The current customer pipeline of over 50 payloads includes domestic and international schools, research organizations and government organizations.

MEDIA CONTACT: Brian Rishikof Chief Executive Officer Odyssey Space Research, LLC 281-488-7953

Download the full Press Release.

Odyssey Launches SpaceLab for iOS App

The event included manufacturers, distributors, researchers, government officials and business development organizations. The overall goal was to discuss strategy for re-stimulating industry to consider use of space for research.

NanoRacks and DLR at Industry Workshop

NanoRacks presented a full overview of the existing and planned facilities onboard the U.S. National Lab on Space Station, as well as the range of payload hardware now operational. The participants were surprised to learn that NanoLabs are now the largest payload offering and NR MixStix and NR Microplates are allowing even lower cost yet sophisticated research in space.

Everyone left with a new understanding of NanoRacks’ belief that in space, “small is the new big.”

Read more at the DLR website.

DLR Hosts NanoRacks in Industry Workshop

Payload platform that houses the NCESSE SSEP school projects, plus the research by a number of organizations. Here the unit is being activated by the shuttle crew.

This payload is an “up and down” riding up on STS-134 and coming down on STS-134. You can see the pictures on our flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanoracks

The good news is that the results have turned out better than we thought yesterday, and everyone is getting results.

Will keep you informed as we move along.

“Up and Down” SSEP Payload Riding on STS-134

Marshall folks immediately wanted to know the % of science that was affected; we estimate 30%. The rest is fine, student payloads are fine.

Good lessons, it came down to the fact that the training hardware supplied to us was slightly different than the flight hardware—but all good. Even the one that didn’t work has an experiment in the LMA so he will get some results.

This all took place in the middle of the night. Working station is like working a ship–you have to be there on all shifts–there are no time zones in orbit…

Progress Report on STS-134 Operations

First, we have to thank the folks at NASA for entrusting this work to a young company like ours. At our new shop in Houston Mike Johnson and his team are already working the program.

From a utilization viewpoint, this could not be more exciting. The Plate Reader is an accepted stable of research labs world-wide. It allows samples to be analyzed multiple ways–I’ll keep it simple, but suggest you go Molecular Devices – SpectraMax-M5e web page to fully understand the capabilities. In short, I can say this–having a Plate Reader onboard the U.S. National Lab will reduce the need for researchers to return samples to the Earth. That reduces the time for analysis, reduces possible damage of samples on return, and will allow for more rigorous experimentation.

This was not an easy relationship to negotiate with NASA, and we all sure appreciate how commercial the space agency was in creating this opportunity. NanoRacks’ owns the hardware, in return we have put our capital at risk here to assure the unit works properly, and NASA researchers will have access to the Plate Reader, as well as we having the ability to market the services commercially. A true sign of the new NASA attitude towards commercial space services.

The Plate Reader joins our two existing research Platforms plus our microscope. More hardware facilities are on the way. It’s a wonderfully busy time here at NanoRacks and we will soon announce more developments on helping bring about routine utilization of low-earth orbit for research and education.

NanoRacks’ Facilities Take a Major Leap Forward

Sunnyvale, CA – May 17th, 2011 – Today, Molecular Devices, a leading provider of instruments, software, and consumables for drug discovery and life sciences research, announced that NanoRacks, LLC has chosen the SpectraMax® M5e Multi-Mode Microplate Reader for use in NASA’s International Space Station; the M5e Reader will be the first microplate reader to be used in space.

Molecular Devices top-of-the-line M5e Reader offers flexible configurations across all commonly-used detection methods to accommodate a wide range of life sciences applications. The M5e Reader includes industry-leading SoftMax® Pro Data Analysis Software that can meet all throughput, content, and multiplexing needs of researchers who conduct microplate-based analysis.

Download the full Press Release to find out why NanoRacks chose the M5e Reader.

Molecular Devices Announce First Microplate Reader in Space

Dumitru Dorin Prunariu (pictured center) on the 30th anniversary of his flight on Salyut 6

Dumitru Dorin Prunariu Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Flight on Salyut

And to better understand just how robust the program now is, involving the 16 school districts on STS-134 and I think it is 11 school districts on the final shuttle, STS-135, go visit their web site at http://ssep.ncesse.org/.

In thanks to NASA for highlighting the program, Jeff posted a note on his site under both our names, (he cleared it with me first!) Let me reprint it here. And add a thanks to everyone, at NASA, at the schools, in the community, that have helped launch this wonderful national space STEM effort via the commercial opportunities on U.S. National Lab.

From Jeff Goldstein:

Jeff Goldstein of NCESSE with two students researchers

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), and NanoRacks, LLC, are proud to pass on word from NASA that the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is now featured at the NASA.gov website. Besides the main article, there is a separate feature article—written by the communities themselves—for 13 of the 16 SSEP communities participating on the flight of STS-134.

We are honored that NASA has worked so long and hard to feature this program, and embraced so warmly what it is achieving for students, teachers, families, and communities across America. We are deeply honored that SSEP is part of these historic final two flights of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program. We are deeply honored to work with 27 dedicated communities—16 on STS-134 and 11 on STS-135—that have made this program their own.

And we are moved with the realization that some of the students touched by this program may one day enter the NASA workforce, and enter this nation’s rank of scientists and engineers, with the capacity of propelling human exploration to bold new frontiers.

We invite you to read about SSEP—the students, the teachers, the communities—in their own words.

To enter the feature article from the main NASA site, go to http://www.nasa.gov, and in the top navigation banner under the NASA logo, either click on “For Educators” or “For Students”. It is featured at both landing sites.

Dr. Jeff Goldstein, SSEP Program Director
Center Director, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education

Jeffrey Manber, Managing Director
NanoRacks, LLC

NASA Web Site Highlights NanoRacks’ Educational Partner NCESSE

Like with all organizations, the important link is with the people involved, and over the past year I have gotten to know Dr. Eran Schenker, who as the head of their Aerospace Research Medicine Center is a veteran of multiple research projects on previous shuttle flights. Part researcher, part dreamer, part businessmen, Eran is a whirlwind of energy who believes that research in the unique environment of space will play a greater role in bringing critical products to the marketplace. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Eran and thinking through with him what steps we can take in the next year to really bring about the routine use of low-earth orbit for commercial research.

But above all else, the idea that NanoRacks is facilitating the continuation of the research that was conducted by the Israeli astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon, who was part of Columbia STS 107-mission makes our agreement even more meaningful.

Events are really heating up for us on STS-134. This time period is one of the key reasons we were all motivated to launch NanoRacks–after months of negotiations, discussions, payload development, safety inspections, integrations, now all our customers are coming together to share in the launch and to meet one another. Will say more on everyone involved in the next few blogs but wanted to begin by briefly introducing you to our new friends from Israel.

A Whirlwind of Energy for the Marketplace

The Fisher Institute for Strategic Air and Space Studies signed a contract with NanoRacks to pursue cooperation in the field of space exploration.

The first project resulting from this agreement is Israel’s expected participation on the cube payload laboratory of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, STS-134.

The head of the Fisher Institute, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Asaf Agmon, said: “toward the end of the space shuttle program, the Fisher Institute sees great importance in Israel’s participation in this important project. Maj. Gen. (ret.) Herzl Bodinger, chairman of the board of the Institute, adds that “in addition to the scientific importance of the experiments, they are very important to Israel position as a leader in the field of space and bio-medical research”.

Read the full press release here: The Fisher Institute and NanoRacks cooperation agreement.

The Fisher Institute and NanoRacks Cooperation Agreement

Our objective is to provide a platform where you-the growing number of users for space station products and services can come together to ask questions, answer questions, complain, learn, be creative, get results, change how we think about low earth orbit, really get close to the International Space Station and other unworldly destinations, all while having a great time.

2010 was a great year for us, starting of course, with the fact that our first two research platforms have been permanently installed in the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. I still have fun even writing those words.

Chris Cummins at the launch of our first platform on STS-131

Our partner Kentucky Space , working with the University of Kentucky , was our first customer. . Others have followed, including the great team at the Valley Christian School which flew the first commercial secondary school project to the space station and first secondary school to use our Platform.

Ohio State University also had a payload that flew. And very soon our educational partner NCESSE, which has gone ahead with the first national commercial space STEM project that involves 16 school districts will be flying on STS -134.

We’re also working with overseas partners and other domestic partners and look forward to sharing that with you soon.

Now we are gearing up for the second full year of operations. Sure we’re proud of the hardware we are building and the growing list of customers. But the icing on the cake will be to have everyone working with us to communicate with one another. All of us at NanoRacks believes that we are on the cusp of a revolution in everyday use of the “mysterious” environment of space.

Whether for research, education or commercial we are motivated by the belief that if we can continue to keep prices low—really low, and if we are smart—really smart, and if we know how to build quality space hardware and we think we do—and if you, our customers and vendors and friends, give it a lot of hard thought, than we can realize the potential of opening space to a new generation of users.
And the International Space Station will be only the first step.

Enjoy the site.

–Jeffrey Manber

Welcome one and all to NanoRacks’ New Web Site

The company is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement for the use of the ISS National Lab on the International Space Station. For the NanoRacks team, these missions are proof-positive of a new can-do era. “For both educational payloads,” explains Managing Director Jeffrey Manber, “the schools went from zero to docking in less than nine months. That’s a great benchmark of what is now possible on the U.S. National Lab.”

To read more, download NanoRacks Release 06 Commercial Payloads Arrive at ISS (6.9K pdf).

NanoRacks Commercial Payloads Arrive at ISS