Baltimore City 8th grader makes spatial moves in STEM with launch of bacteria experiment into outer space

By Nicole D. Batey Morgan has not yet entered high school and she is already making a profound impact in outer space.& Recently, she and her team, Team Andromeda, were selected as winners of Higher Point’s 2021 Go For Launch! event in Lakeland, Fla.& Together,& Morgan and teammates Krysta Fowler, Chelsea Mayfield, Anais Mera-Sarnelli and Autumn Rhodes, created an experiment to study the ‘Effects of Microgravity on a Radiation Resistant Bacteria.” Team Andromeda’s project was further developed by Space Tango and is scheduled to leave planet Earth on March 14. The project will catch a ride to the International Space Station on the SpaceX CRS-27 from the Kennedy Center in Florida shortly after 8 p.m. “It feels really surreal to have our project chosen to go into space. I just couldn’t believe it, but I am so excited! I look forward to going to Florida and seeing my teammates—I haven’t seen them in two years,” said Morgan, a student at James McHenry Elementary Middle School in Southwest Baltimore, ahead of traveling to the launch event.& Her parents, Ian “Sonny” and Quianna Grayson couldn’t be prouder. “As a father, it’s always great to have something to connect with my children over,...