A professor at the University of Florida became the first NASA-funded researcher to fly on a suborbital rocket to conduct an experiment in space.
Biologist Rob Ferl was part of the commercial space crew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital rocket system slated for a test flight Thursday morning. He was joined by five other astronauts on the test flight.
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Ferl is experimenting how plants grow in zero gravity as well as help develop protocols for future suborbital flights.
“As commercial space programs have advanced and access to space has become more available, I always hoped I might be able to conduct our experiments myself in microgravity,” Ferl said in a news release from the University of Florida. “I feel very grateful for this opportunity. After years, decades even, of working with astronauts to conduct our experiments, it's an honor to be at the forefront of researchers conducting their own experiments in space.”
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The Blue Origin spacecraft launched at 9:07 a.m. Thursday, reaching the edge of space before the capsule safely returned to land about 12 minutes later.
