YouTube Space Lab Contest Winners Praised by NASA Administrator

NASA recently announced the two winners of the YouTube Space Lab contest. The competition was open to individuals around the world and was designed to challenge 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment for the International Space Station.

The winners were selected from thousands of individuals and teams from more than 80 countries. For the winners, their experiment will fly to the ISS and will be performed during the Expedition 32 and 33 missions later this year.

The competition is made possible as a result of the 2005 NASA Authorization Act which designated the U.S. segment of the space station as a national laboratory and directed NASA to develop a plan to “increase the utilization of the ISS by other Federal entities and the private sector.”


NASA sees contests like the YouTube Space Lab as important components of an integrated strategy to inspire the next generation of explorers and scientists using the orbiting outpost.

In response to the announcement of the YouTube Space Lab contest winners, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver praised the winners saying, “I want to congratulate the winners of the YouTube Space Lab contest for their outstanding proposals. I am especially proud of the two winners from the United States, Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, and look forward to seeing the results of their experiments after they are flown and conducted on the International Space Station during Expedition 32 and 33 this summer. Earlier today, I had a chance to speak with Dorothy and Sara to thank them for their hard work, and salute them on behalf of NASA.

“As a national laboratory, our goal is to open up the space station to new paths for the exploration, discovery and economic development of space. Educating and inspiring the next generation of space explorers and scientists are among the most important things NASA can do, and these students are getting the opportunity of a lifetime. A contest like this taps into the passion of so many people who get involved, from the just over 2,000 students who submitted proposals to everyone who voted for them, and we want to encourage that passion and engagement.”


Additional information about the contest, including the proposals from the 60 finalists, can be found online at: http://www.youtube.com/spacelab