Pioneering Space Station Breakthroughs: NASA's EXPRESS Rack Reaches 100,000-Hour Milestone

November 12, 2014

Image Caption: NASA astronaut Steve Swanson grows vegetables on the International Space Station in the Veggie facility located in EXPRESS Rack 8 during Expedition 39. Credit: NASA

Provided by Bill Hubscher, International Space Station Program Science Office, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center

Getting more from less is no clich aboard the International Space Station, its necessity. With six people living, working and conducting science in the space of a single-family house 240 miles above Earth, square footage is at a premium. NASAs EXPRESS Rack helps ensure theres room for research on the orbiting laboratory.

EXPRESS is a multipurpose rack system housing and supporting research. On Oct. 4, EXPRESS Rack 1 marked 100,000 hours of operation. There are eight EXPRESS racks on the station, each filled with multiple studies.

The versatility of EXPRESS is what makes it so valuable to NASA and scientists, said Tara Ruttley, associate program scientist for the space station at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston. Not only can it house experiments, but it also provides a customized environment for each, allowing proper working conditions for each investigation. It helps us learn more about living and working in space, which leads to new advances in science and medicine on Earth.

EXPRESS allows investigators to perform research across scientific disciplines by providing common structural interfaces, power, data, cooling, water and other items needed to conduct experiments in space. Since 2001, the racks have housed dozens of investigations leading to ground-breaking science discoveries, Earth benefits and technology innovations that are aiding future space travel.

Its rewarding to see our EXPRESS Rack reach this milestone and continue to play an integral part of space station research, said Annette Sledd, space station office manager at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The versatility of the racks to provide standard communication interfaces and utilities is key to their success and expanded use in support of station research, technology demonstrations and housing payload support equipment.

[ Watch the Video: ExPRESS Rack ]

Payloads flown in EXPRESS Racks range from Protein Crystal Growth experiments to the Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) investigation to refrigerators and incubators, to name just a few examples. One investigation in the racks includes 20 mice and is part of the Rodent Research investigation. The fourth SpaceX cargo resupply service mission delivered the first rodent studies to the station. Studies on the space shuttle indicated rodents make good research models for physiological changes similar to those experienced by humans. The investigation will provide information about changes occurring during spaceflight and could lead to discoveries in basic biology and offer insight into human aging and disease on Earth.

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Pioneering Space Station Breakthroughs: NASA's EXPRESS Rack Reaches 100,000-Hour Milestone