On Saturday 4th May, the experiment PBR@LSR (Photobioreactor at the Life Support Rack) finally went up to space.
Image: Launch of SpaceX-17 (Pic: Gisela Detrell)
The experiment flew on Board the SpaceX CRS-17 Dragon Mission, that lift of from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:48 CET. After 2 days of travelling, the capsule was captured by the robotic Canadarm2 at around 13:00. A couple of hours later berthing took place, attaching the CRS-17 Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.
Image: The Dragon CRS-17 cargo spacecraft with PBR@LSR on board attached to the Station (Pic: NASA)
The Photobioreactor and the algae are safe on board. In the coming days, the experiment will be installed in the EXPRESS Rack and after a commissioning phase it will start with the inoculation of the algae.
In case you want to know more about how the experiment works, you can follow this link to an explanation on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_8Hsyd0Jll4
For more updates, visit our website (www.irs.uni-stuttgart.de) and follow us on twitter (@PBRatLSR)