Student-built SCAMPI experiment launches to the International Space Station
After years of hard engineering work and deep learning as part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme, the student-built SCAMPI experiment has been launched to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the SpaceX CRS-35 mission on 13 October 2026 at 12:33 CEST.
The launch marks a major milestone for the 51 university students who conceived, designed, built, and tested the SCAMPI experiment payload.
The project brought together students from institutions across Europe and the United States to investigate how a closed aquatic ecosystem behaves in the unique environment of microgravity.
The mission represents the culmination of a challenging student-led development effort that progressed from an innovative proposal to a flight-ready experiment.
Supported by ESA Academy and its partners, the team completed the reviews, tests and qualification activities required for launch while gaining hands-on experience of a real spaceflight project.
A late-load experiment
SCAMPI is a so-called ‘late-load payload’ carrying living organisms. To preserve the health of the biological ecosystem, final refurbishment and preparation activities were carried out at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the days leading up to launch.
Supervised by the ESA Payload Integration Manager, the student team refreshed the sealed aquatic ecosystem, performed final inspections of the aquaria, verified the health of the biological components and confirmed that the payload was in its nominal flight configuration.
Once these activities were completed, the payload was handed over to the NASA counterparts, for integration onto the launcher, and transport to the ISS. Upon arrival at the ISS, an astronaut will install the payload on to the ICE Cubes Facility, a commercial research platform operated by Space Applications Services that provides users access to the International Space Station, located inside the European Columbus module.
The experiment's ecosystem contains shrimp, algae and microbial populations housed within a closed habitat specifically designed to study how ecological systems function when removed from Earth's gravity.
Science in orbit
Once installed aboard the International Space Station, young researchers and students will monitor the evolution of the ecosystem and collect scientific data on how microgravity influences the interactions between its living and non-living components.
The experiment seeks to improve our understanding of closed ecological systems, which could one day play a key role in supporting astronauts on long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit. The data collected will contribute to research into future life-support systems capable of sustaining human exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.
From orbit back to the laboratory
The mission does not end when operations aboard the ISS are completed. Following its scientific campaign, the payload is expected to return to Earth, where the ecosystem components will undergo detailed laboratory analyses.
Students will perform genetic and biological investigations on the returned samples to determine how prolonged exposure to microgravity has affected the shrimp, algae and microbial populations.
By comparing the flight samples with their ground-based counterparts, the team hopes to gain new insights into how living ecosystems adapt to the space environment.
A collaborative achievement
SCAMPI demonstrates what students can accomplish when provided with the opportunity to develop and fly a real scientific experiment. The programme brought together expertise from multiple disciplines, including biology, ecology and engineering, while giving students direct experience of the demanding technical, operational and programmatic challenges associated with human spaceflight.
“SCAMPI has given students the opportunity to take on a real-world challenge: designing and building a system capable of housing a small aquatic ecosystem during a mission aboard the International Space Station. Our University’s contribution has focused on the engineering aspects of the experiment, working closely with partners from several countries. This has been an invaluable learning experience, which will also provide new insights to support the development of future bioregenerative life support systems for human space exploration missions,” says Sabrina Corpino, Professor of Aerospace Systems at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy.
Note to editors
The student-built SCAMPI payload experiment, selected to participate in ESA Academy’s Experiments programme, is the result of a collaborative effort involving the ESA Education Programme, Space Applications Services (through the ICE Cubes Service) and a consortium led by Politecnico di Torino and École Polytechnique. The consortium also includes The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon (France), ISAE-SUPAERO (France), IPSA Aeronautics and Space Engineering School (France), École d’Ingénieurs de PURPAN (France), Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and TU Delft (the Netherlands).
Within ESA, the mission is supported by experts from the ESA Education Office - particularly the ESA Academy - the Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate and the Technology, Engineering and Quality Directorate.