International Space Station Device Installed

Daniel Batcheldor, Head of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Tech, has a test imaging device successfully installed on the International Space Station as of April 28, 2017.

The device, on the international space station, will collect data for the next six months. Data collected will determine the potential of future missions with NASA and possible installation on telescopes collecting images of earth-like planets around other stars.

The experiment was launched on SpaceX’s CRS-10 mission on Feb. 19, but Batcheldor and researchers had no idea if the device would work until it was installed on the ISS last week.

“It’s been a very interesting process. We were quite worried at launch and very relieved when we saw it was a successful launch,” Batcheldor said. “We’ve had this period of two or three months where the payload has been waiting to be put through the airlocks. So we haven’t actually known until now that the payload survived launch and was going to function.”

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