New NASA Space Experiment Rack To Undergo Flight Tests

Sept. 8, 2008

Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
allard.beutel@xxxxxxxx

MEDIA ADVISORY: 25-08

NEW NASA SPACE EXPERIMENT RACK TO UNDERGO FLIGHT TESTS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A new space experiment rack under development
by NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and Space Florida will undergo
initial tests this week. The rack will fly aboard NASA's first
commercially-provided research flights on Zero Gravity Corporation's
reduced gravity aircraft.

Flight testing of the FASTRACK Space Experiment Platform will be
performed on four consecutive days between September 9-12 from
Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.

The experiment rack is designed to support two standard lockers that
fit inside the space shuttle's crew middeck. It is being developed
jointly by Kennedy and Space Florida to facilitate NASA and
commercial use of reusable U.S. suborbital flight vehicles currently
under development. The rack also will accommodate experiments aboard
reduced gravity aircraft such as Zero Gravity's modified Boeing 727
jet, and may also be adapted in the future for orbiting vehicles and
facilities.

FASTRACK will enable investigators to test experiments, apparatus and
analytical techniques in hardware compatible with the International
Space Station, and to perform science that can be carried out during
the reduced gravity available for brief periods during aircraft
parabolas. FASTRACK is designed to accommodate two single middeck
lockers or one double locker, and other compatible experiment
accommodations developed for use on the space shuttle and
International Space Station.

Kennedy's FASTRACK project team will use NASA's commercial flight
services contract with Zero Gravity Corporation to install and test a
prototype rack along with three science investigations to verify
interfaces, procedures and performance characteristics prior to
fabrication of the FASTRACK flight units.

The three science investigations that will be performed on the
flights
this week are: baseline characterization data of the microgravity
environment in the FASTRACK payload accommodations using
instrumentation provided by NASA's Glenn Research Center; a fluid
dynamics experiment by the University of Central Florida to study
Faraday wave interfaces in microgravity; and tests of a biomedical
sensor to evaluate its effectiveness in performing continuous,
non-invasive monitoring and recording of human hemodynamics, or the
movement of blood, during changes in gravity.

Another potential group of customers will be those participating in
NASA's Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology
Development and Training, or FAST, Program. The FAST Program, which
is managed by the Innovative Partnerships Program, will provide
reduced-gravity or suborbital testing opportunities for emerging
technologies developed by small businesses and others in partnerships
with NASA.

With the expected emergence of commercial suborbital flights over the
next few years, FASTRACK will support investigations that can benefit
from longer exposure - between 2-3 minutes - of microgravity time, as
well as actual spaceflight conditions.

The flights are sponsored and funded by NASA's Strategic Capabilities
and Assets Program under the agency's commercial microgravity
services contract with Zero Gravity Corporation.

The FASTRACK project has received support from the NASA Innovative
Partnerships Program Office and the NASA Science Mission Directorate.
It is being jointly developed under a Space Act Agreement between
Kennedy and Space Florida, both of which have contracted with the
Bionetics Corporation to accomplish design, fabrication and testing
of the experiment rack. FASTRACK is a trademark of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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