Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Area Scientists Ready For Last Shuttle Flight

Atlantis
NASA

Area scientists are in Florida this week readying experiments that will go on the final shuttle launch.

Ted Bateman first worked on space experiments as an undergraduate student 20 years ago. Now, he’s an associate professor in rehabilitation engineering in the joint department of biomedical engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State.

This will be his fourth time sending mice into space.

Ted Bateman: "Oh, it’s certainly exciting to see any space shuttle launch, but particularly when you’ve got your own experience on the space shuttle, and you’ve spent as much time and effort working on this as you have, it’s certainly a thrilling experience."

Bateman’s experiments have focused on the loss of bone density in space. He’s optimistic that space experiments will continue after the shuttle’s final flight.

Bateman: "We don’t consider this the end, we expect to be able to fly experiments in the future. It’s certainly the end of a very important era of flying experiments in space."

The Atlantis is scheduled to take off Friday.

Dave DeWitt is WUNC's Supervising Editor for Politics and Education. As an editor, reporter, and producer he's covered politics, environment, education, sports, and a wide range of other topics.
Related Stories
More Stories