Cell Culture in Space

Life science research in space gives scientists and medical practitioners a better understanding of the effects of space flight on living systems, including the immune, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular systems. It also presents the opportunity to develop and assess countermeasures against the negative effects of microgravity. This information is essential for long term space flight of humans, and it has clinical applications on Earth.

The Cell Culture Module (CCM), Cell Culture Module with Cooling (CCM-C) and the Space Tissue Loss-B (STL-B) are middeck payloads that automate cell culture research in microgravity. These tissue culture support modules offer investigators a wide variety of experiment protocols.

These modules have flown on fifteen Space Shuttle missions since 1990. An additional shuttle mission (STS-117) and missions to the International Space Station are planned. The CCM engineering team has worked with PIs and research teams from world renowned institutions and have flown a variety of cell types within their hardware systems.

For additional information about projects and technologies, contact us directly.

STS-93 WRAIR and Investigator Teams