After the successful launch of the satellite Earth observation last week GOCE, Astrium engineers can now add one more success to their charts. This is aboard the space laboratory Columbus to the International Space Station (ISS) that the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery have installed and put into service the instrument of experimentation PCDF (Protein Crystallisation Diagnostics Facility). A success that will allow scientists to study the growth of proteins in conditions of weightlessness.

• Astrium Astronauts begin operating the instrument testing PCDFs manufactured by Astrium

• The scientific community hopes to gather information needed to develop new drugs

Developed and manufactured at the Center “Payload & Life Support” of Astrium in Friedrichshafen, on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), the PCDFs should allow the study of nucleation and crystallization of protein molecules from a range of solutions, thanks to its special diagnostic instruments (microscope and interferometer). Teams of Astrium Aquitain Site de Saint-Médard-en-Jalles were responsible for the design, production and integration of four sub-systems of PCDFs, which thermostated chamber in which crystallization reactors and their regulatory heat. Read the rest of this entry »