- Space Shuttle Discovery carries EADS SPACE research payloads to the ISS
- EADS SPACE provides key European contributions for the ISS
Bremen, 23 June 2006 – When Thomas Reiter heads for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Space Shuttle "Discovery" on 1 July, the ESA German astronaut will be taking along several items of high-tech equipment built by EADS SPACE at Bremen, Friedrichshafen and Toulouse. These will comprise the "Europallet" for the Shuttle "ICC" and three other experiment racks that will enable basic experiments and research to be conducted under zero gravity conditions.
"With this Space Shuttle mission STS-121, Europe is considerably increasing its presence on the ISS. Not only is Thomas Reiter the first European astronaut to be a long-stay crew member aboard the International Space Station, but the equipment from EADS SPACE will also give a fresh boost to research on board," said Evert Dudok, President EADS SPACE Transportation, commenting on the forthcoming Shuttle launch.
In the course of his six- to seven-month mission, the German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will also help to put the EADS SPACE experimental equipment into operation. The three payloads will be
- the EMCS (European Modular Cultivation System), a modular multi-purpose payload consisting of eight chambers, in which biological experiments can be carried out. The entire unit is designed for long-duration experiments with plants and insects over several generations and will, for example, allow plants to be cultivated under zero gravity conditions. On the basis of research results obtained with the help of EMCS, it may then be possible to cultivate plants in space that could be used for food production.
- the MELFI (Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS), a special "refrigerator", in which biological specimens on board the ISS can be kept permanently frozen at temperatures down to -80°C. Through MELFI, scientific experiments can be stored, conserved and later examined in detail back on Earth.
- the HLTA (arm-cuff blood pressure Holter), a blood pressure metre manufactured under joint Franco-German production specially for use on the ISS. This forms part of the equipment delivering data to the Cardiovascular Laboratory CARDIOLAB aboard the Columbus research module and provides information about changes in the physical condition of humans in space.
In addition, there is a special re-usable payload device on-board the Shuttle. This was developed and built by EADS SPACE under contract to NASA especially for the payload bay of the Space Shuttle. The unit is known as the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), and can be compared to a high-tech transport pallet on which it is possible to stow the entire payload of the Space Shuttle in a space-saving manner. Thanks to the ICC, considerably better use can be made of the Space Shuttle's payload bay. During STS-121 the ICC will accommodate additional equipment for the extension of the ISS.
In the medium and long term, EADS SPACE will be contributing further to the success of the International Space Station. Another Shuttle flight with the ICC is already planned for December 2006. In the autumn of 2007, the European research module Columbus, built by EADS SPACE, is due to be transported to the ISS on-board a Space Shuttle. Since the end of May, Columbus has been at the site of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On later missions, further experiment payloads from EADS SPACE will be taken to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle or the Russian space transporter Soyuz. Most of these units are destined for the Columbus module. In the autumn of 2008, for example, a number of devices built by EADS SPACE will embark on their journey to the ISS, namely Space DRUMS (Space Dynamically Responding Ultrasonic Matrix System), MSL (Material Science Laboratory) and DECLIC, an apparatus for the study of material growth and critical liquid behaviour.
EADS SPACE, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems. In 2005, EADS SPACE has a turnover of € 2.7 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. EADS is one of the world's leading providers of products in the fields of aerospace and defence and the associated services. In 2005, EADS achieved revenues of € 34.2 billion and employed roughly 113,000 employees.
Press contact:
EADS SPACE, Remi Roland +33 (0) 1 42 24 2734
EADS SPACE (UK), Jeremy Close +44 (0) 1438 77 38 72
EADS SPACE (GER), Mathias Pikelj +49 (0) 7545 8 91 23
Hendrik Thielemann, +49 (0) 89 607 2 72 44
http://space.eads.net
