SpaceX’s Falcon 9 To Send Nickelodeon Slime To ISS

For the first time, television network Nickelodeon will send its famous play slime to space. It will be delivered to NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Fans of Nickelodeon are well aware of just how messy the network’s slime can get. Often used in the network’s award shows, dousing celebrities and various personalities with slime is Nickelodeon’s way of honoring them.

Now, in a historic move, it seems Nickelodeon is looking to slime someone in space by sending the gooey fluid to the ISS. It will fly aboard the Falcon 9 along with various other payloads for SpaceX’s 18^TH mission as part of its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program.

According to the ISS, the slime will be the subject of various experiments aboard the station. Many of these will revolve around the substance’s reaction to the weightless environment.

“Nickelodeon, the first American television network for children, plans to send its iconic slime to the orbiting lab for a series of science demonstrations that will educate students on the basic principles of fluid flow in microgravity versus normal gravity on Earth,” the ISS National Laboratory said in a statement.

Aside from scientific experiments, there’s a possibility that the slime will also be used to honor someone aboard the space station. According to CNET, Nickelodeon said that someone will be slimed in space for the first time.

Although it is not yet clear who that could be, one possible candidate is American astronaut Christina Koch, who is expected to be credited as the female astronaut with the longest continuous stay in space once her mission ends.

Other than the slime from Nickelodeon, the Falcon 9 spacecraft will also carry various payloads from different private companies. These include materials from Adidas, which aims to study the aerodynamics of a spinning ball in microgravity.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s payload will evaluate the development of novel silica forms and structures in microgravity. The findings from this experiment could be applied to the development of the company’s products.

SpaceX’s upcoming mission, dubbed as CRS-18, is expected to launch on July 21.