Montana Tech Faculty and Students Provide Parts for NASA's International Space Station

09/21/2020

Faculty and students from the Precision Machining Program at Montana Technological University’s Highlands College provided parts that will be going to NASA’s International Space Station on SpaceX 21.

SpaceX 21 is a commercial resupply service mission to the International Space Station slated for this November. NASA contracted the mission that will be flown by SpaceX.

The Precision Machining Program faculty and students produced a one-handed tape dispenser and a seat track attachment from NASA’s blueprints and materials. The parts were then created on the Hass CNC machines in the Machine Shop at Highlands. Tolerances for the parts as specified by NASA were exceeded by the machining process. All measurements were checked and verified for each part on the shop’s CMM machine and were completed before the due date.

“This gave our students a first-hand opportunity to create parts that will be used by NASA,” said Tony Patrick, Precision Machining Instructor and Trades Department Head. “How many students can say that they created something for NASA? The Machining Program is looking forward to receiving another opportunity to provide additional parts for NASA this year.”

Participating faculty members include Tony Patrick and Mike McCormack. Participating students include Aurora Andersch, Brianne Coon, Jackson Duprey, Skyelyn Edwards, Haley Frey, Matthew Hanley, William Heath, Wyatt Rankin, Erik Rees, Connor Sampson, Charlie Cantwell, Matthew Fouch, Drew Gouldorg, Samuel Kurtz, Jeremy Leach, Cole Pickering, and Kyle Salo.

To learn more about Montana Tech’s Highlands College, visit mtech.edu/highlands.