Lafayette’s Centaurus High has an experiment on way to space … – Boulder Daily Camera

Lafayette's Centaurus High is making its mark in space after the successful launch today of 7,600 pounds of crew supplies and science gear to the International Space Station, which includes an experiment designed and built by the school's engineering students.

The origins of the experiment, which aims to study the effects of simulated gravity on bacterial lag phase in a micro-gravitational environment, date back to the spring of 2014, and roughly 20 Centaurus engineering students have had a hand in bringing it to fruition.

Lag phase is the period when bacteria are adjusting to an environment.

The Orbital ATK Cygnus module launched successfully at 9:11 a.m. MDT today atop an Atlas V rocket and performed well, according to Vern Thorp, United Launch Alliance's program manager for commercial missions.

"It was a beautiful launch," Thorp said in a statement posted to the NASA website. "It looks like we nailed the orbit once again. At this time, it looks like a very good orbit insertion."

The Cygnus module is expected to arrive at the ISS about 4:05 a.m. MDT Saturday as it passes over southern France. The crew will use the complex's robotic arm to grab Cygnus and attach it to the station.

Centaurus has more than one connection to the current ISS missions. Launching from Florida about 1:13 a.m. MDT Thursday will be 1992 Centaurus graduate Jack Fischer, of Louisville, along with crew member Fyodor Yurchikhin, of the Russian Space agency Roscosmos.

Fischer and Yurchikhin will arrive at the ISS well ahead of the cargo module, with an expected docking at the space station of about 7:05 a.m. Colorado time on Thursday, about six hours after liftoff.

Also onboard the launch from Cape Canaveral was a University of Colorado student-built microsatellite named "Challenger." It is part of the European Union sponsored QB50 project to deploy a network of miniaturized satellites to study part of Earth's atmosphere.

The launch was followed via NASA TV today by Centaurus engineering teacher Brian Thomas and about 60 Centaurus engineering students and a half dozen other teachers.

"We're very excited," Thomas said about 90 minutes after liftoff. "We were cheering as it took off. My heart's still beating. I've still got butterflies in my chest from this one. It was really a special thing."

The Centaurus experiment has had a challenging road to fruition, after the first version of the experiment landed in the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the explosion of the SpaceX CRS-7 unmanned resupply mission shortly after liftoff on June 28, 2015. The experiment was rebuilt during the 2015-16 school year - with some modification requested by NASA and readied once again for its date with space.

"The last time it went off, it was two minutes in, before it exploded," Thomas said. "So, even when it launched today, we were still holding our breath a little, until everyone said it was looking good and it's still on its way."

Thomas and his student team hope that at the space station, their experiment will be supervised by Fischer, who is expected to be at the ISS for about five months.

"That's all under NASA's control," Thomas said. "For our experiment, there has to be a swapping of our bacteria samples we have four total sets and we needed an astronaut to do that.

"Jack really wanted to be the one, and I can't imagine any reason why he wouldn't be. Hopefully, that's what he'll be doing, and hopefully he'll snap a selfie that he can send us."

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan

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Lafayette's Centaurus High has an experiment on way to space ... - Boulder Daily Camera