Go for Launch ¼¤Çé¿ì²¥ Professor Joshua Colwell and his team of physics faculty and students watched as their experiment rocketed to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard. Summer 2016 Images Courtesy of Blue OriginOn April 2, 2016, a team of ¼¤Çé¿ì²¥ scientists made history as their experiment became the first to go to space aboard ’s New Shepard. The project, known as MEDEA and led by , examines how space dust builds up to form planets and the rings around planets. The experiment is one of several that Colwell, along with , Post Doctoral Associate Julie Brisset and a team of ¼¤Çé¿ì²¥ students, has worked on. The others include four experiments that were conducted on parabolic flights and two on the — earning the team another historic distinction: the first to partner with Blue Origin and the ISS to conduct research.Read more on ¼¤Çé¿ì²¥ Today. “We want to understand how planets form and what conditions are needed to form planets — in particular, planets that could be habitable like Earth.” — Joshua Colwell, ¼¤Çé¿ì²¥ professor Post Doctoral Associate Julie Brisset, undergraduate students William Santos and Alexandra Yates, and Professor Joshua Colwell stand in front of the capsule that housed their experiment. 339,138Height reached in feet (2 miles above the Kármán line, which marks the boundary of space)3,635Feet at which rocket engine was re-ignited for landing11Minutes from liftoff to landing3Minutes in high-quality microgravity environment3rd Test flight of this vehicle to space1st Science payload on New Shepard The New Shepard booster successfully completed its vertical landing. Jump to top