Suborbital Test of NASA-Supported Payloads, Student Experiments
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America’s civil space program and the global leader in space exploration. The agency has a diverse workforce of just under 18,000 civil servants, and works with many more U.S. contractors, academia, and international and commercial partners to explore, discover, and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
Launched on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas, this flight test is helping researchers from NASA, universities, and private companies advance solutions that will help inform the agency’s lunar exploration through missions like Artemis, and future Mars missions. Also aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle: 24 experiments from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge, which fosters the U.S. space industry through use of commercial vehicles for flight tests, while also strengthening the space technology researcher community by providing a hands-on opportunity for middle and high school students to gain critical skills in engineering, computing, electronics, and more.
This gravity-independent hardware improves two-phase heat transfer by providing a constant liquid working fluid source through electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping and extracting the vapor bubbles away from the heated surface during the boiling with di-electrophoretic (DEP) force.
This thin-film boiling technology is a thermal management system that acquires heat at higher fluxes while consuming less power than other systems, benefiting a wide variety of NASA and commercial spacecraft.
To determine the combined effect of EHD and DEP force on boiling heat transfer under varying gravity to validate experiment hardware for applications in NASA’s various missions as well as in next-generation cooling technology for satellites
The successful flight test of this novel two-phase heat transport device provided fundamental insights into DEP-enhanced thin-film boiling in zero-gravity and multi-gravity settings as well as a foundation for developing innovative electric field–based two-phase thermal management systems.
This primary fuel cell system is designed to convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity. Teledyne’s ejector-driven reactant (EDR) fuel cell system is a cost-effective and efficient way to supply power in space since it can reduce launch mass and contribute to a sustained human presence in space. Teledyne previously advanced the water separation subsystem aboard parabolic flights.
NASA provided a Tipping Point award and access to facilities and expertise at Glenn Research Center because all space missions require power, and fuel cell systems are an integral part of the solution. Teledyne’s EDR system is capable of providing continuous power when sunlight is not available and is extremely scalable, meaning it can power a small experiment or a large lunar base.
To demonstrate operation of the system in a space environment, validate water separation in microgravity, and generate data to advance the system for future space missions.
This flight successfully tested HEPS power generation, water separation, thermal management, and resilience to space conditions. The system demonstrated the capability to be activated mid‑flight following main engine cut‑off and reliably delivered 250 watts of power throughout the remainder of the flight. The results will guide future integration into lunar and Mars infrastructure and help inform NASA’s plans for sustainable lunar exploration.
This flexible imaging system for exploration science aims to autonomously provide high-resolution data for a variety of biological payloads during transitions in gravity levels. This capability could facilitate collection of morphometric (i.e., shape/form-related), gene expression, and biochemical responses through fluorescent biosensors.
This system addresses the need for state-of-the-art images for government, academic, and commercial biological research as well as biological studies to understand orbital and beyond low Earth orbit environments.
To perform high-fidelity testing of the camera’s systems during microgravity to inform development for low Earth orbit and other environments
The flight advanced the technology as well as provided vital specimen collection for validation studies of plant responses to suborbital spaceflight.
Designed to facilitate the transfer/storage of cryogenic and other propellants in microgravity, this technology uses external piezoelectric sensors to translate acoustic vibrations applied to the tank into electric voltages, helping determine the total liquid volume and location/motion of the liquid-free surface inside.
This system offers a solution for improved propellant management for refueling and other in-space propulsion applications.
To help verify sensor operation in a relevant space environment, correlating liquid-free surface position and motion with sensor amplitudes
On this flight, the team achieved detection of the liquid-vapor interface inside a propellant tank partially filled with propellant simulant. This demonstrates the technology’s ability to non-invasively determine the location of the liquid-vapor interface in a model propellant tank under microgravity conditions.
In-space propellant transfers require accurate microgravity liquid mass gauging. This modal propellant gauging (MPG) technique translates measured modal frequencies and mode shapes to precisely estimate propellant quantity.
The MPG is designed to reduce risk and enable extended human presence on lunar surfaces. Future users include commercial and military satellite and launch service providers, NASA and commercial programs developing in-orbit fuel depots.
To test the ability to gauge equilibrated liquids in microgravity during continuous transfer
The PROTO experiment successfully conducted a microgravity test of propellant mass gauging during dynamic propellant simulant transfer between two tanks, confirming the MPG is non-invasive, operates in real-time, and can achieve highly precise measurement accuracy during refueling operations in space.
The SOARS controlled-gravity fluid transfer system is designed to enable precision fluid management in microgravity environments, providing a foundational technology for controlled phase separation and fluid transfer to a variety of operations that require precise fluid control in microgravity.
The SOARS system aims to support on-orbit propellant storage and transfer as well as applications such as pharmaceutical synthesis, advanced materials processing, space mining operations, and regolith processing for in-situ resource utilization.
To validate controlled gravity fluid separation dynamics and transfer capabilities in microgravity, demonstrating rotational settling techniques and precision flow control
The SOARS payload successfully demonstrated autonomous multiphase fluid management. Based on these results, the GFR concept will be further developed with a focus on in-space biomanufacturing and ECLSS/ISRU applications.
This system will test the physics of bubble formation and transportation in viscous fluid in reduced and microgravity. This payload has also been tested on a lunar gravity suborbital flight.
Results will be used to study bubbles in viscous fluid, which could help inform the design of both in-situ resource extraction and life support systems.
To characterize bubble formation and transportation in viscous fluid in microgravity, using a simple and reusable platform
This flight test aimed to provide insights to help predict how oxygen bubbles will act in regolith/rock that is melted during the in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) process known as molten regolith electrolysis.
Designed to assess multi-phase reservoirs for sample mixing and bubble migration, the FORGE (Fluidic Operations in Reduced Gravity Experiments) sample handling system uses reservoirs’ shapes and a magnetic field to help drive the gas phase to desired locations and prevent bubbles from blocking channels.
The FORGE technology could benefit NASA missions as well as the commercial space industry by providing a deeper understanding of end-to-end fluidic systems for chemical analysis. The many benefits include water testing to ensure it is safe for astronauts to drink during long-duration manned missions and looking for the chemical building blocks of life at Enceladus or other ocean worlds in the outer Solar System.
To demonstrate that end-to-end fluidic systems, including multiphase reservoirs, are suitable for chemical analysis missions at any gravity level
The FORGE project executed its fluidic protocol, captured an image of the system’s initial state, and successfully emptied and air-filled all reservoirs. This process prepares instruments for cold storage and provides a way to reset the system during operation, reducing the risk of unexpected behavior during critical measurements of astronaut water quality or signs of life elsewhere in the solar system.
Designed to sense small concentrations of subsurface water, SPARTA is a versatile, miniature, multi-tool instrument that provides in-situ measurements of regolith densities as well as geomechanical, thermal, electrical, and chemical properties of soils and permanently frozen layers on planetary surfaces.
The SPARTA instrument could prove useful for in-situ lunar missions, data collection for fundamental science, and ground truthing for NASA’s in-situ resource utilization activities.
To improve the ability to calibrate SPARTA and determine how various gravities affect shear, penetration resistance, and dielectric properties
[Did not receive report – remove this note prior to publishing] This flight test aimed to measure the physical properties of lunar regolith simulant under lunar gravity, allowing for better calibration and understanding of how the instrument performs in different gravities.
This project aims to determine whether microgravity allows for the creation of better, more uniform, and smoother coatings that could increase the sensitivity and specificity of electrochemical biosensors — analytical point-of-care diagnostics tools that can rapidly and cost-effectively detect a broad range of molecular analytes. The payload, known as ARES (Advanced Reinforced Engineering Structure), also includes Ecoatoms’s TechLeap Prize-winning universal connector system known as ANIMA.
Addressing the uniformity and smoothness of the real-time biosensor’s self-assembled monolayer could benefit on-orbit manufacturing of point-of-care diagnostics, sensors, and biomarker detection devices for use during long-duration flights as well as here on Earth.
To demonstrate an automated batch system for sensor coating and fabrication to address challenges of accuracy and reproducibility
During the flight test, the ARES payload achieved automated and simultaneous coating of 215 biosensors in microgravity. This demonstrates a significant milestone in sensor technology development. The ARES payload was effectively powered and controlled by Ecoatoms’ onboard computer, ANIMA, which executed the coating process and provided critical redundancy for the second experiment within the payload.
Designed to overcome current limitations related to the levitation of dust clouds in microgravity, DIMS enables observation of undisturbed dust clouds from two different angles using high-speed cameras to create a 3D image of the cloud.
The scientific investigation of dust particles is crucial to understanding the environments of planetary bodies. Future uses could include solar system exploration and utilization programs for NASA and the commercial space industry as well as scientific research.
To determine and demonstrate the system’s ability to create and control clouds of dust in microgravity
This flight validated critical DIMS components in microgravity — dust dispenser, heating elements, camera, lighting, and data storage — marking a milestone for dust-handling and cloud-manipulation technologies essential to future lunar and planetary operations where managing dust in low gravity is vital for resource use and habitat construction.
As part of the previously tested JHU APL Integrated Universal Suborbital (JANUS) platform, which is designed to integrate sensors for observing spaceflight conditions during suborbital flight altitudes, JANUS-TEC aims to accurately perform total electron content (TEC) observations of the ionosphere while integrated into a reusable suborbital rocket.
This technology could offer insight into Earth’s ionosphere; provide low-cost, ride-along measurements; and improve the accuracy of communications and navigation systems, with measurements benefitting research institutions; atmospheric, ionospheric, and heliospheric scientists; spacecraft providers; and other organizational suborbital flights.
To establish, evaluate, and verify the TEC observational capability of the JANUS platform
The JANUS-TEC project was successfully tested during the flight. Establishing the capability to measure ionospheric TEC on commercial suborbital flight missions as well as compare the measurement quality to traditional ground-based observations may enable serendipitous low-cost ionospheric observations on all future commercial suborbital flights and (potentially) rocket launches.
This EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) project is evaluating the ability of several radiation-measuring dosimeters to operate continuously and successfully during the entirety of a suborbital rocket-powered flight.
This effort to better understand atmospheric radiation environments has the potential to benefit NASA missions, the commercial space industry, and other government agencies.
To determine the impact of cruise phase vibration on recorded signal quality and use ionizing radiation data to validate results from computer models
On this flight, the Space Tissue Equivalent Dosimeter (SpaceTED) demonstrated potential for providing flight dosimetry for space tourism missions. Although New Shepard passed twice through the Regener-Pfotzer Maximum where the absorbed dose rate from cosmic radiation in the atmosphere is most intense, the very short duration of these flights translates to an extremely low radiation exposure for passengers.
This water- and nutrient-delivery system consists of a plant cultivation system that uses thin-film hydroponic techniques via passive capillary processes to support the growth of nutrient-dense aquatic plants and rooted land plants — a unique space technology that allows a liquid-air interface for aquatic plants.
Reliable crop production systems for aquatic plants have enormous potential for edible biomass production in a human habitat on long-duration space missions. Future uses could include food system and life support on crewed NASA missions and the International Space Station.
To evaluate the system’s feasibility for operation in microgravity, including its water and nutrient delivery and growth-bed stability
The Lily Pond system was demonstrated on this flight for both watering and harvesting aquatic plants under reduced gravity in space. The payload contained Wolffia arrhiza (rootless duckweed), a nutrient-rich superfood (also commonly used in wastewater treatment).
This flight includes 24 student payloads from the first NASA TechRise Student Challenge, which empowers teams of sixth to 12th-grade students to design, build, and launch experiments on NASA-supported test flights.
The TechRise Challenge seeks to equip America’s future workforce with the skills needed to advance the U.S. aerospace economy.
To give student teams real-world, hands-on experience with the same processes that professional researchers follow
The flight test allowed student teams to run experiments on topics ranging from space farming to medical solutions and the behavior of liquids in microgravity.
This NASA competition enables students in grades 6–12 to propose space technology and science experiments for development and flight testing. Teams can submit ideas for experiments to fly on a suborbital flight platform. Competition winners receive $1,500 to build their payloads and an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored commercial flight test.
