Just days before a planned rocket launch, a crate the size of a dishwasher destined for the International Space Station had been routed to the wrong Norfolk address.

The mysterious wooden box held equipment for scientists at Eastern Virginia Medical School who needed to prepare it to be shot into orbit from Wallops Island on Sunday.

Instead, it sat at a senior high-rise, intriguing elderly residents with its many Hawaii labels.

The delivery mishap gave Northrop Grumman project manager JoElla Delheimer a dose of last-minute anxiety. The stress lifted when she learned that the box was only a couple of blocks away from the EVMS campus.

One thing about flying a rocket to space is that you cant be five minutes late, she said.

Through a multimillion-dollar contract, scientists are using the Norfolk medical schools laboratories and supplies to prepare experiments for astronauts. And while certain studies are done in orbit, scientists down below will conduct control experiments at EVMS.

The partnership with NASA contractor Northrop Grumman began with a mission last fall and will continue for at least three years, aiding five more space launches out of Wallops Island.

Weather permitting, Northrop Grumman plans to send up its unmanned Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, carrying more than 8,000 pounds of cargo, at 5:39 p.m. Sunday from the Virginia flight facility.

So long as the Cygnus is on schedule, it will dock at the station Tuesday.

Bill Wasilenko, the vice dean of research at EVMS, said one reason the school got involved was that it would bring in researchers from around the world. On a later mission, for example, the school will host some Japanese scientists through the contract.

A lot of biomedical benefit is likely to come out of doing the research that we do up there, in terms of drug development. There are ways in which crystals develop in space that are different that could lead to new pharmaceuticals, new therapeutics, he said. The hope is our medical students will mingle around the scientists, learn about what were doing from mission to mission, come to our seminars. Maybe some of them will get interested in space medicine.

Two research teams were at the Norfolk campus this week preparing experiments and hardware for liftoff.

One group from Hawaii plans to run a tissue-culturing study in a device it developed called the Mobile SpaceLab. The equipment has a sort of set-it-and-forget-it capability: Once its at the space station, it will perform biology tests without crew. The device will take pictures of the cell activity every six minutes for four weeks.

Devin Ridgley, chief biologist for the Scorpio-V division of HNu Photonics, said the automation frees up the crew to work on other things and eliminates some of the potential for mistakes.

Weve been trained with this equipment and cell biology for many years now, but the crew may not be as well-trained, he said. Some are fighter pilots deservedly crew, but maybe not the best at doing cell biology experiments.

On Thursday at EVMS, Ridgley started growing a type of cancer cell, neuroblastoma, for the experiment. The study will look at the effects of microgravity the weak gravitational conditions of the space station at the subcellular level.

The second team, from BioServe Space Technologies based at the University of Colorado, was busy in a different lab preparing kits for another microgravity-related study. Mark Rupert, associate director of BioServe, said the hardware sort of like petri dishes that work without gravity will facilitate research on bone loss using osteoblast cells.

On Earth there is a way to levitate organisms with strong magnets, which may provide a way to study the bone loss that happens in space, he said. But its unclear if that simulation is a good substitute. The experiment, run by a researcher at the University of Minnesota, will compare the methods. If the magnet technique is suitable, it could be a cheaper way to study the problem in the future than running more tests at the space station.

Because astronauts experience bone loss in orbit, researchers want to learn more about it, not only to help future space travelers but to better understand a wide range of disorders, such as osteoporosis.

To get ready for its supporting role for NASA, EVMS sent staff down to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tour the facility and observe operations. There they saw things like researchers who were growing lettuce talk to an astronaut, who was also growing the leafy vegetable at the space station.

The laboratories that are needed for the pre-launch preparation of experiments primarily occur at the Kennedy Space Center, but theyre overwhelmed. They have a backlog of experiments, Wasilenko said.

That makes EVMS, a two-hour drive from the Wallops Island launchpad, well-positioned for providing similar services, especially for experiments that involve live tissue or rodents that must be packed at the last minute. Though no critters will board the Cygnus this time, about 40 mice, born and raised on campus, flew in the previous mission that took off in November.

Northrop Grumman said that no other place it considered was large enough or had the capabilities of EVMS.

One of the primary things that brought us here, of course, was the animal care facility, Delheimer said. Their reputation is tremendous.

Separate from the Northrop Grumman contract, EVMS has two NASA-funded studies. Richard Britten, an associate professor of radiation oncology and biophysics, is examining the effects of galactic cosmic radiation on brain function. And Larry Sanford, professor of pathology and anatomy, is studying in-flight stress and sleep disturbances on brain function.

EVMS administrators hope the schools new role will open opportunities for more of its own biomedical research. Wasilenko thinks its an interesting coincidence that a lot of the research coming out of EVMS right now happens to be on similar subjects as those being studied in the space station.

Diabetes, obesity, circadian rhythm work and now the bone thing, he said. "Theres a lot of overlap, and thats the appeal of researchers coming here and mingling with our researchers. If they hit it off, they could work together on some future projects.

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When rocket blasts off for space station, EVMS will be along for the ride - Daily Press