ESA, the French space agency CNES and the German space agency DLR chose Astrium to design experimental equipment for various modules for the International Space Station (ISS): Columbus, the Astrium-built space laboratory, is equipped with Biolab, the material science laboratory (MSL), the European modular cultivation system for plant research (EMCS), the Cardiolab the protein crystallisation and diagnostics facility PCDF and a fluid sciences laboratory.

Other examples of Astrium’s expertise in this highly specialised field include the LBNP (lower body negative pressure) for human physiology research, the DECLIC facility (Dispositif d'Etude de la Croissance et des LIquides Critiques) for research into critical transparent media, and the atomic clock ensemble in space (ACES).

The Astrium-built MELFI, the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer, and EMCS, the European modular cultivation system for biological research, are currently in operation on the ISS. The microgravity science glovebox (MSG), used to safely manipulate sensitive or toxic materials and substances, has been in continuous use in orbit since 2002.

Astrium’s Geoflow 2 experiment was shipped to the ISS in February 2011 by the second ATV mission. Geoflow 2 simulates a kind of ‘mini’ Earth installed in an experiment container the size of a shoebox. Following the first Geoflow 1 mission to the ISS in 2008, Geoflow’s flight model was modified by Astrium in 2009 and 2010 in order to enable experiments with a different scientific focus to be carried out. The results will help to understand thermal convection in planets and the outer shells of celestial bodies, and to verify all numerical simulations of fluid dynamics with real experimental data.