By RHEANA MURRAY
Students across the nation watched their science projects go up in flames as the rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after takeoff.
The Antares rocket was carrying kids' science projects as well as food and supplies for astronauts at the space station before it blew up Tuesday over Wallops Island in Virginia.
"[We're feeling] shock and horror -- a little more horror just because of the explosion on live camera," Tony Holmes, a seventh grader at Hobby Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, told ABC affiliate KSAT. "It's a bummer for us because we're going to have to take a lot more time to fix everything. But no one got hurt, so that's great."
Holmes and three other students had a crystal-growing project aboard the rocket. They mixed borax and water to grow crystals in tubes, and the goal was to see if the crystals would grow faster in space. But their experiment never made it to its destination.
"I was just beginning my, 'Make it, make it, make it' chant that I always do since the Challenger, and it didn't even get as high as the Challenger and it blew," science teacher Serena Connally told the station.
Students at another Texas school also had a science experiment aboard the rocket. Mary Crace Meyer, a fifth grader at Duchesne Academy in Houston, was part of a group of a group that created an experiment to see how algae grows in space under UV light, ABC affiliate KTRK reported.
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