The European Space Agency (ESA) reported that the student-built SCAMPI experiment launched to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX CRS-35 on October 13, 2026, at 12:33 CEST. The payload is designed to study a closed aquatic ecosystem in microgravity. ESA’s launch announcement
What SCAMPI is designed to study
The sealed habitat contains shrimp, algae and microbial populations. SCAMPI is intended to investigate how the ecosystem, including interactions between living and non-living components, behaves in microgravity.
Before launch, the team refreshed the sealed ecosystem, inspected its aquaria and checked the biological health and flight configuration at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. ESA says the payload was then handed to NASA counterparts for launcher integration and transport to the station.
The students behind the payload
ESA credits 51 university students with conceiving, designing, building and testing SCAMPI. The consortium was co-led by Politecnico di Torino and École Polytechnique.
Planned monitoring and sample analysis
An astronaut is expected to install SCAMPI in the ICE Cubes Facility inside the European Columbus module. Students and young researchers are expected to monitor the ecosystem and collect data on how microgravity affects interactions between its living and non-living components.
After the scientific campaign, the payload is expected to return to Earth. Students plan to conduct genetic and biological analyses of its samples and compare them with ground-based counterparts.
