CLEVELAND – After six years of design and building, personnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center recently finished the Combustion Integrated Rack and its initial experiment, Multi-User Droplet Combustion Apparatus. The space hardware is targeted to launch aboard space shuttle Endeavor in fall 2008. On Thursday, Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m. EST, reporters are invited to photograph the rack and experiment and interview project officials and researchers about how the rack will support space experiments.
The first part of this event will take place in a clean room environment in the High Bay area of Glenn’s Power Systems Facility.
Glenn will ship the rack to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida later in February. After reaching its final destination, the International Space Station, the rack will house combustion experiments to be performed in space. These experiments will further NASA’s understanding of fire prevention, detection and suppression during long-duration space travel and could lead to innovations in fire prevention and combustion here on Earth.
In addition to housing experiments, the rack will provide hardware, software, power, data management, communication and environmental controls for the experiments.
During the second part of the event, media will have an opportunity to tour the Telescience Support Center, where Glenn researchers will operate the facility remotely during its time on the space station.
Following the space hardware media opportunity, reporters are invited to watch the launch of space shuttle Atlantis in the Visitor Center Auditorium. The STS-122 mission to station is set to lift off at 2:45 p.m.
Media representatives wishing to attend either of these events must contact Katherine Martin or the Media Relations Office at 216-433-2901 by noon on Feb. 7 to be cleared through security.
For information about Glenn’s work in Microgravity Science, visit:
http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/Advanced/ISSResearch/FCF/
For information about space shuttle mission STS-122, visit:
