STS-101 To Launch Two Commercial Payloads

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September 27, 1999 Huntsville, AL   Follow-on investigations with soybeans and protein crystals will highlight two commercial payloads on the upcoming STS-101 mission. Currently scheduled for January of 2000, the mission will carry the ASTROCULTURE(TM) and Commercial Protein Crystal Growth commercial research facilities.

The soybean experiment seeks to replicate previous results on transferring desired traits to a plant, and advance the development of new crops. On Earth, such transfer efforts have, at best, a 0.1 percent success rate. The previous experiment, flown by Industry Partner Rapigen, LLC and its partners through the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR) , showed a more than 10-fold increase in the rate of transfer. The investigation on STS-101 will make use of a revised experimental procedure, based on lessons learned in the previous mission, to improve operations and enhance the transfer of a desired commercial gene to the plants.

The second payload will grow protein crystals using the Protein Crystallization Facility, developed by the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography . Protein crystals are an important part of modern pharmaceutical development, yet growing large, well-ordered crystals is a complex -- and often difficult -- process. Most of the crystals grown in space for commercial investigations have been done using small droplets located in a vapor diffusion apparatus. While this has resulted in many successes, the small size of the droplets can limit growth. The Protein Crystallization Facility is designed to grow protein crystals in large batches, using temperature as the growth control method rather than vapor diffusion. The Industry Partner will use the facility to grow bulk crystals for its research efforts.

More information on the mission and the commercial investigations to fly on it will be posted here in the coming months. Stay tuned for the latest information.

For more information on the Space Product Development Program, contact spd@msfc.nasa.gov. For more detailed information on WCSAR and the gene transfer experiment, please contact Dr. Weijia Zhou at wzhou@facstaff.wisc.edu or by phone at 608-262-5526. For more information on the CMC and the Protein Crystallization Facility, please contact Michael Harrington at harringt@cmc.uab.edu or by phone at 205-581-2906, or Dr. Lawrence DeLucas at 205-934-5329.