{"id":38103,"date":"2015-01-11T16:35:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T08:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=38103"},"modified":"2015-01-11T16:35:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T08:35:44","slug":"b-c-students-science-project-finally-launches-successfully-into-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/01\/11\/b-c-students-science-project-finally-launches-successfully-into-space\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. students’ science project finally launches successfully into space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hunter<\/a>
Hunter Galbraith, clockwise from back left, teacher Sharmane Baerg, Kieren O’Neil, Ryan Watson and Jordan Brown, the team are shown in this recent photo. A science project created by B.C. students that suffered a blow this fall when the rocket it was aboard exploded has finally launched into space. THE CANADIAN PRESS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A science project that a group of B.C. students dreamed of launching into space was finally on its way to the International Space Station on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Four boys from McGowan Park Elementary School in Kamloops, B.C., celebrated after the rocket their project was aboard successfully launched early Saturday.<\/p>\n

The students won a contest last year to have their experiment join 17 other student projects from across North America on a trip to the space station.<\/p>\n

But they suffered a major blow in October when the NASA-contracted rocket their project was aboard exploded in a spectacular fireball in eastern Virginia.<\/p>\n

Hunter Galbraith, 13, said he felt hopeful the rocket would launch successfully this time but he still felt a little nervous.<\/p>\n

“It was almost a little nerve-wracking, because we didn’t know if it was going to make it up this time or if we’d have another catastrophe on our hands,” he said.<\/p>\n

He and his three close friends – Kieren O’Neil, Ryan Watson and Jordan Brown – are now in Grade 8 at a separate school. They were stunned when they watched the rocket explode the first time.<\/p>\n

Brown, 13, recalled that he was so shocked he started to laugh.<\/p>\n

“I was very sad but I was also laughing, just because all that work went up in a blaze of glory,” he said. “All of that work, just under a year of work, just gone in a mere seven or eight seconds.”<\/p>\n

Rebuilding the project was a daunting task, but the students felt thrilled to have the opportunity to do so. Galbraith said they were actually able to modify and make the experiment better.<\/p>\n

“I think we probably did our math a little bit better, and got the right chemicals with the right measures,” he said.<\/p>\n

The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at about 1:45 a.m. Saturday and is expected to dock the International Space Station by Monday.<\/p>\n

Sharmane Baerg, the boys’ former Grade 7 teacher, said the experiment could be returned to Earth as soon as February. She said Saturday’s launch was actually the ninth try, after several rocket launches were delayed.<\/p>\n

“You keep your fingers crossed,” she said. “You think what else can I do to send positive vibes to the rocket so that it does take off?’ It was really interesting to watch it. It was smooth, there were no complications, no hiccups.”<\/p>\n

The projects are part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, which is run by the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.<\/p>\n

The local school district in Kamloops raised $25,000 to secure a spot on the mission. Student groups within the city then competed to determine which project would be selected.<\/p>\n

The rocket involved in the failed October launch was Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket.<\/p>\n

No one was hurt in the explosion, but it damaged a state-owned launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Officials hope to have the launch pad repaired and ready for testing late next year.<\/p>\n

With files from James Keller<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A science project that a group of B.C. students dreamed of launching into space was finally on its way to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":38199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,604,5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-education","category-science-2","mauthors-laura-kane","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}