BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Students from Buffalo and Niagara Falls just got back from Florida where one of their science experiments launched into space.
Three of the students designed the experiment, and one of them designed the mission's patch.
Over the weekend, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space to meet up with the International Space Station. An experiment involving potatoes that the students designed was on board. The goal of the experiment is to study how potatoes grow in space.
The girls went to NASA's Kennedy Space Center Saturday to see the launch, but with 13 seconds to go, the launch was scrapped and postponed until Sunday. They were not able to attend the launch on Sunday. They were in an Uber when the rocket went off and the driver pulled over.
“He turned up the radio and it goes like 5, 4 and it, you just hear it. And it's like ready to take off, and it just went, and you heard the wind, and you heard everybody's excitement in the car and, honestly, just for only the team members to hear it and, you know, be there with each other to see our reactions, it was honestly the best thing,” says 8th grader Gabriella Melendez.
Melendez hopes to see the plants when they return from the Space Station in six to eight weeks. When the plants return to Earth they will be shipped to UB to be studied more.
The girls were also able to visit the Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios when they were in Florida.