{"id":5420,"date":"2026-06-26T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/?p=5420"},"modified":"2026-06-26T10:30:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:30:03","slug":"biology-faculty-works-with-students-to-launch-experiment-aboard-nasa-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/2026\/06\/26\/biology-faculty-works-with-students-to-launch-experiment-aboard-nasa-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Biology faculty works with students to launch experiment aboard NASA rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Marshall University undergraduate students are preparing to take their research beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere as part of a NASA-supported suborbital mission.<\/p>\n<p>Macy Smith and Joshua Hardesty, both biomedical engineering students, will launch a student-designed experiment through NASA\u2019s RockSat program at the Wallops Flight Facility. Working with biology faculty member Dr. Alicia Purcell, the team will study how suborbital spaceflight affects the viability of soil bacteria.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment will fly aboard a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket, providing a short-duration micro-gravity environment that allows students to collect data on how spaceflight conditions influence microbial survival.<\/p>\n<p>The project is part of the West Virginia Space Flight Design Challenge and is supported by the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium, giving students hands-on experience in spaceflight research and collaboration with NASA partners.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/centers-and-facilities\/wallops\/nasa-sounding-rocket-to-launch-student-experiments\/?utm_source=FBPAGE&amp;utm_medium=NASA%27s+Wallops+Flight+Facility&amp;utm_campaign=NASASocial&amp;linkId=966777138&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawSmhe9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR4BcDxh-6SZtfkpx-pA42ch1XHX6KZgC3r97mmJfLxHr7XbcsNiwKrrOhmqWA_aem_iAGG4iKQODx2llGo15giDg\">NASA Sounding Rocket to Launch Student Experiments<\/a><\/p>\n\n<div\n\tclass=\"relative w-full aspect-video cursor-pointer overflow-hidden rounded-xl shadow-sm  \"\n\tx-data=\"{\n\t\tplayVideo: false,\n\t\tsrc: 'https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AU4NzyMkXCM?modestbranding=1&autoplay=1',\n\t\tplay() {\n\t\t\tthis.$refs.yt.src = this.src;\n\t\t\tthis.playVideo = true;\n\t\t},\n\t\tstop() {\n\t\t\tthis.$refs.yt.src = '';\n\t\t\tthis.playVideo = false;\n\t\t}\n\t}\"\n\t>\n\t<div class=\"group\/video relative\" x-on:click=\"play\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" x-show=\"!playVideo\" x-ref=\"video\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/AU4NzyMkXCM\/maxresdefault.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"w-full h-full object-cover aspect-video\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div x-show=\"!playVideo\" class=\"absolute inset-0 bg-black\/5 transition-all duration-300 ease-out group-hover\/video:bg-black\/20\"><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<div x-show=\"!playVideo\" class=\"absolute inset-0 flex items-center justify-center z-4\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"w-16 h-16 md:w-20 md:h-20 bg-green rounded-2xl flex items-center justify-center shadow-lg transition-all duration-300 ease-out group-hover\/video:rounded-[50%] group-hover\/video:scale-110 group-hover\/video:shadow-xl\">\n\t\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"currentColor\" class=\"w-7 h-7 md:w-10 md:h-10 text-white hc:text-gray-900 contrast-more:text-gray-900 ml-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<path d=\"M8 5v14l11-7z\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div x-show=\"!playVideo\" class=\"absolute bottom-0 inset-x-0 h-1 bg-green hc:bg-gray-900 contrast-more:bg-gray-900 z-4 transition-opacity duration-300 ease-out group-hover\/video:opacity-0\"><\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div x-show=\"!playVideo\" class=\"absolute bottom-0 inset-x-0 bg-green hc:bg-gray-900 contrast-more:bg-gray-900 px-5 py-3.5 flex items-center z-5 translate-y-full transition-transform duration-350 ease-out group-hover\/video:translate-y-0\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"font-mont font-bold text-white text-sm md:text-base\">RockSat Student Sounding Rocket Launch - June 24, 2026 <\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div x-cloak x-show=\"playVideo\" class=\"relative aspect-video w-full\">\n\t\t<div x-on:click=\"stop\" class=\"absolute top-0 left-[50%] flex items-center justify-center bg-green text-white z-5 p-2 cursor-pointer\">\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" stroke-width=\"1.5\" stroke=\"currentColor\" class=\"w-6 h-6\"><path stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" d=\"M6 18L18 6M6 6l12 12\" \/><\/svg>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" x-ref=\"yt\" class=\"aspect-video w-full\" title=\"YouTube Video\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Marshall University undergraduate students are preparing to take their research beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere as part of a NASA-supported suborbital mission. Macy Smith and Joshua Hardesty, both biomedical engineering students, will launch a student-designed experiment through NASA\u2019s RockSat program at the Wallops Flight Facility. Working with biology faculty member Dr. Alicia Purcell, the team will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":5421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,75,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-research","category-science-abstracts"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/files\/biology-nasa-rocksat.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5422,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5420\/revisions\/5422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}