Central Florida students build parts for NASA and the International Space Station

DELTONA, Fla - Students at Pine Ridge High School are making parts that will go to the International Space station.

“It’s thrilling to know that you got a part in that -- like you’re a part of something as big as that,” student Brooklyn Knopp said.

With the upcoming scheduled launch to the International Space Station, students at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona are getting in on the action. Those in the school’s manufacturing academy spent the school year making suitcase access doors for NASA. These will eventually will be sent to the International Space Station.

Pine Ridge High Manufacturing Instructor Jim Maynard told FOX 35 Orlando that the doors are "panels that allow the astronauts to interact with whatever’s inside the suitcases, whether it’s a piece of equipment or experiment."

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Pine Ridge is one of the schools across the county partnering with NASA to build parts for the ISS.

Maynard said that “NASA brings us a blueprint, the students then take the information from the blueprint and create a 3-D model on the computer."

Students at the school are excited about the opportunity.

“I just like the fact that I can say I helped them,” Knopp said. “You see all these big things and I’m just like a high school student but I had a little part in something as major as that.”

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The next piece of equipment the students will be making are latching pieces for the suitcases. 

The historic SpaceX manned mission is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday at 3:22 p.m. after the original Wednesday launch date was scrubbed.

Tune in to FOX 35 Orlando for the latest Central Florida news.

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