A group of Red Hook High School students took literally the expression, “shoot for the moon and if you miss, you’ll land among the stars."

An experiment that five seniors designed is bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Thirty-seven communities across the country were selected to have experiments taken up to the ISS.

Red Hook’s students are studying the effects of microgravity on the hatching of brine shrimp. Those shrimp will remain in space for four to six weeks before being returned to the students so they can study.

Tucker Sheahan, one of the students who designed the experiment, said shrimp was an easy choice.

“We had to choose the brine shrimp, which is the perfect biological model for us because it develops very quickly," he said. "The eggs can hatch in a very wide range of conditions.”

Students will have some time to wait though. Right now, no flight is expected to take place earlier than December 2023.