Three Kentucky Space Payloads Headed To Space Station

An unmanned Japanese Spacecraft will launch Saturday with three payloads from the Kentucky Space scientific association on board.The payloads each contain a science experiment organized by a school or business. They are based on technology developed by Kentucky Space and the NanoRacks company.The payloads will remain on the International Space Station for several months. Kentucky Space sent several experiments to the station last year, and several more are planned for this year. President Kris Kimel says each experiment benefits the commonwealth. "For us to have this kind of access to the International Space Station—which is quite rare—and to have regular flight opportunities to space station with this partnership with NanoRacks has opened up a whole new array of new research and commercial and education opportunities for Kentucky," he says."We are finding information out that, in some cases in the biomedical area, that we think has the potential to be game-changing for the further development of certain kinds of drugs and even medical procedures, perhaps on the issue of tissue regeneration or things of that nature."The experiments launching tomorrow test, among other things, plant growth and microscopes. These and other experiments may lead to breakthroughs in life sciences.