Lori Higgins

The first thing Israa Alfadhli thought about after the explosion of a rocket carrying a science experiment created by her and three of her best friends wasn’t about their work. It was about the people.

“She wanted to know if anybody was hurt or dead. I told her everyone is OK. She said my heart is broken,” recounted Angel Abdulahad, an enrichment teacher at Wilkinson Middle School.

There were a lot of broken hearts in Madison Heights on Tuesday night as the reality hit that months of work and months of anticipation evaporated along with the unmanned rocket that was headed to the International Space Station.

The unmanned commercial supply rocket exploded moments after liftoff Tuesday evening, with debris falling in flames over the launch site in eastern Virginia. No injuries were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA’s commercial spaceflight effort.

The Madison Heights experiment was one of 18 science experiments created by groups of students through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

Eighth-graders Regina Alsabagh and Farah Sabah, both 14, and Maryam Kafra and Alfadhli, both 13, designed an experiment on the effect iodine tablets will have on E.coli bacteria in zero gravity. The girls are all refugees from Iraq, having fled the country with their families to escape religious persecution.

Also on board was an astronaut patch designed by Wilkinson eighth-grader Tanner Barndollar. His design was one of 18 selected from across the country. It was to go to space and come back with a certificate stating it had been there.

On Friday, the girls excitedly talked about their experiment and were looking forward to watching the rocket launch. Tonight, they were in tears. And so were some of their parents.

“They had mixed emotions — joy watching your kid’s rocket go up followed by devastation,” said Abdulahad, who himself was struggling to come to terms with what happened.

“Honestly, I’m just dumbfounded and speechless,” Abdulahad said.

The rocket was originally scheduled to take off Monday, but the launch was canceled at the last minute because an errant boat was spotted near the launch site.

Randy Speck, superintendent for Madison District Public Schools, was in his office watching and recording the launch when he saw the explosion: “I was hoping that I was just seeing the second launch of the boosters and that within seconds I would see the rocket come up out of the fire and the smoke. It took another second to realize something had gone wrong with the launch. And then I just sat there looking at it.”

Despite the devastation, Speck and Abdulahad were looking ahead. “Their accomplishments don’t go away,” Speck said. “We still have the experiments.” He said they would be checking to determine whether they can resubmit the experiment.