Kentucky Space Exomedicine Experiment Successfully Launched to Space Station
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 January 2015
Kentucky Space Exomedicine Experiment Successfully Launched to Space Station
Kentucky Space LLC (KS), in partnership with the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts University, announced the successful launch (launch video), on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at 4:47 AM EST, of a novel exomedicine experiment via SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS).
Exomedicine involves the research, development and commercialization of biomedical solutions in the microgravity environment of space for applications on Earth…a rapidly expanding initiative of KS.
This mission is analyzing the regeneration mechanisms of planarian flatworms in the microgravity environment (and absence of a geomagnetic field) of space. When returned to Earth, on or about February 10th, the flatworms’ regeneration patterns will be analyzed via morphological & molecular genetic methods.
Kentucky Space (KS) collaborator, FedEx Space Solutions, is managing the sensitive pre-launch and post-flight terrestrial movement of the mission assets.
This experiment is a critical step in a specific regenerative medicine research and commercial pathway being pursued by the parties.
This Kentucky Space mission also involves testing Google Glass as an augmented reality tool in pre-launch integration and post-flight operations. This is part of a process leading to the utilization of Google Glass as a human interface with KS technology and experiments on the ISS in 2015. In addition to Google, KS is working with Interapt, a Google at Work Certified Partner headquartered in Louisville, KY, on this project.
This KS mission is facilitated through a NASA Space Act Agreement and support from the Center For Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the US National Lab on the ISS. The KS mission will use Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) spaceflight hardware, which was developed at NASA-Kennedy Space Center and is managed for NASA by Vencore, Inc. Vencore provides sustaining engineering and analytical integration services as an implementation partner for CASIS-sponsored payloads flying to the ISS.
Kentucky Space (kentuckyspace.com) is an ambitious nonprofit enterprise focused on R&D, education and entrepreneurial space solutions. The organization has successful flight and mission heritage involving high-altitude balloons, orbital spacecraft and the International Space Station (ISS). It’s commercialization partner is Space Tango.
For additional information contact Kris Kimel at kkimel@kentuckyspace.com / 859-229-6161 or Twyman Clements at tclements@kentuckyspace / 959-229-2719.
