See your ideas launch into space!

The Carthage Space Sciences Program develops payload experiments for NASA and commercial partners. Students design, build, and fly the experiments on commercial parabolic and suborbital flights. Our research straddles the boundary between physics and engineering and supports investigations into the properties of fluids in the microgravity environment of space.

We recruit students from physics and computer science programs, but no particular major is required. Students at all levels participate in this program, from high school students to seniors in college. Successful teams typically have students with strengths in one or more of the following areas: software design/programming, hardware, CAD, electronics, physics, and math.

See the 4-year plan for space science students

  • Skylar Farr

    “I was really attracted to Carthage because of the amazing STEM program they have and their close relationship with NASA.”

  • Héctor Rauda

    “I chose Carthage because of its excellent Space Sciences Program and the generous scholarships the College offered me.”

  • Kassia Schraufnagel

    “I had the opportunity to accompany one of the experiments I worked on with the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium to Texas to see it launched on a Blue Origin New Shephard rocket!”

Team up with NASA

Students pursuing space science studies at Carthage have the extraordinary opportunity to work with NASA. The College collaborates on research with the NASA Johnson Space Center and the NASA Flight Opportunities Program Universal Payload Interface Challenge (UPIC). 

Test your experiments on zero-gravity flights

We perform our experiments while falling out of the sky on a parabolic air