ORHS Fashion Design program designs bags for space stations

OAK RIDGE NORTH, Texas -- Oak Ridge High School displays the Type A, Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Cargo Transfer Bag (CTB) made by ORHS students for all to see. ORHS Fashion Design program has been participating in the "High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware" (HUNCH) program for more than 4 years.

One year the HUNCH team at ORHS produced Class III crew training softgoods including over twenty half size CTBs, 10 Jettison stowage bags, and an R2 battery backpack cover development unit. Three out of the four years, the ORHS Hunch team successfully produced and delivered over 108 flight-certified Class I non-standard ATV CTBs to NASA for use by the International Space Station (ISS) program and aboard the European operated ATV.

More than 100 of these Class I CTBs have already been utilized by the ISS program to resupply the Space station, and the remaining surplus is planned for use on a future resupply mission. These bags are used to carry precious cargo to the ISS and are typically not returned to Earth due to cost. Recently the HUNCH program made a special request to return a few bags to Earth, and the wish was graciously granted.

One of the flown ATV CTB was presented to Oak Ridge High School to put on display at the school in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments. The non-standard Type A, ATV, CTB (pictured) was launched into orbit on March 23, 2012 and delivered to the ISS where it remained for more than a year.