Lux A Capella member, Adam White, is not just an accomplished Bass singer with the chorus, 16 times a day his name whizzes over our heads contained in an experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). During the day Adam spends his work hours as an Aeronautics Space Technician at Leicester Space Park. In recent months Adam has been busy finalising two very special space missions funded variously by The North American Space Agency (NASA), The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).

In April, Adam travelled out to the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas, to make the final
adjustments to the Fluorescent Deep Space Petri-Pod (FDSPP) or ‘worms in space’ experiment

Adam was then present in Houston, to witness the launch of the experiment aboard the
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket CRS2 NG-24 mission to resupply the ISS on April 11th 2026 (full
launch video available here). This experiment is now bolted onto the Robotic Arm of the ISS and is intended to monitor the effect of Solar and Deep Space radiation upon animal tissue development. This data will then inform decisions about how to reduce cell damage on human tissue in future space flight missions.

Adam has also been working on the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) Earth Satellite. This satellite will be in an elliptical orbit around earth for at least 3 years and will measure the effect of Solar winds and storms on the Earth’s magnetosphere. Such storms have the potential to greatly damage telecommunication devices on and around earth as well as having enough power to disrupt National Electrical Power Grids. This Mission launched on a Vega C Arianespace rocket, from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, on 19th May 2026.

Although the mission has only just begun, all rocket stages fired normally, and the Satellite successfully deployed its Solar Array power system. It will now travel out to about one third of the distance to the Moon before starting to measure the interactions between the Suns radiation and Earths Magnetosphere.

You can watch the launch here

Adam enjoying a celebratory ‘Wee Nip’ Toast, after the successful Launch of SMILE