Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket launched a scientific project created by school students from the Lviv region into space.

The SpaceX-31 rocket has delivered a scientific project created by students from the city of Skole in the Lviv region to the International Space Station. This was reported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

The rocket launched on November 4 from Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, USA. On board was an experimental sample from the winners of the All-Ukrainian competition for school space experiments, SSEP, from Skole School No. 2 named after Stefania Vitryk.

The team's experiment was titled "Production of Biomedical Hydrogel in Microgravity Conditions." The competition winners sent the research results aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The ministry emphasized that this is already the third scientific project by Ukrainian schoolchildren to travel into space.

The Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine reported that the idea for the project arose after the students learned about a unique method of hydrogel production discovered by chemists at the Lviv Polytechnic.

"These hydrogels consist of chains of organic nature, linked together by physical and chemical interactions. The chains form a network, in the openings of which water or other hydrophilic substances are located. These substances have the ability to absorb other water-soluble compounds and form a film, which is why they are already being used in various fields on Earth," noted the project participants.

In space, hydrogels can serve functions such as controlled drug release systems, substrates for cell or plant growth, desiccants, hydrogel membranes, moisture sensors, stopping bleeding, and healing wounds.

As a reminder, an astrophotographer from Portugal managed to capture a photo of a rare comet. The comet C/2023 A3 takes about 80,000 years to complete its orbit around the Sun.