Fox's 'Xploration Station' Announces Winner of #StudentAstronaut Contest
21st Century Fox Social Impact
Xploration Outer Space, one of the four series comprising the Fox Television Stations' two-hour block of STEM-focused children's programming entitled Xploration Station, recently partnered with Project PoSSUM to launch the #StudentAstronaut Contest. On Friday, September 11, through a special video message, Xploration Outer Space host Emily Calendrelli announced Ohio State University senior Jillian Yuricich as the winner of the competition.
"We were so impressed with your creativity and your passion for space exploration that we want to feature you in a season two episode of our show," Calandrelli said.
Yuricich will fly to Florida this October to attend PoSSUM Academy, a special 5-day astronaut training program where she will learn about the Earth's upper atmosphere while training to perform an experiment during a suborbital space mission.
The curriculum includes learning to operate PoSSUM instruments, working inside a pressurized spacesuit, and simulating suborbital mission profiles through aerobatic flight with legendary aerobatic pilot, Patty Wagstaff. Yuricich's experience will be featured on an episode of Xploration Outer Space to air later this fall.
Xploration Outer Space and its three sister series returned for a new season on Saturday, September 12, on local Fox stations across the country. The other series comprising Xploration Station are Xploration Awesome Planet, hosted by Philippe Cousteau, Xploration Earth 2050, hosted by Chuck Pell, and Xploration Animal Science, which explores animal behavior. Both Xploration Awesome Planet and Xploration Earth 2050 were nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards this year.
