by Jamie Grey

KTVB.COM

Posted on March 25, 2014 at 6:25 AM

Updated today at 7:03 AM

BOISE -- The countdown is on for Boise State University's Professor of the Practice and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson to launch into space.

Swanson will leave earth with two Russian cosmonauts on Tuesday around 3:15 p.m. MT. He is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) just after 9 p.m.

The students Swanson is working with, called the "Space Broncos," are eagerly awaiting his mission. They plan to use the project they've dubbed "Team Swanson" to make science accessible to everyone, by engaging students and the rest of the community.

Boise State University freshman mechanical engineering major Camille Eddy is one of the Space Broncos and hopes one day she'll be doing science in space.

"I've found that my passion is definitely research, like space science, anything like that, even going to space, I'm up for that," Eddy said.

Eddy and students from each of BSU's colleges will be working on a variety of projects that will incorporate Swanson's mission. Swanson will help the Space Broncos create two educational videos for college students and will participate in a live Q&A during a student-planned "Space Symposium" set for May 6.

Originally posted here:

BSU professor headed to International Space Station Tuesday