Microgravity Research Program

Using both space flight and ground-based experiments, researchers throughout the nation, as well as international partners, are working together to benefit economic, social and industrial aspects of life for the United States and the entire Earth. U.S. universities, designated by NASA as "Commercial Space Centers," share these space advancements with U.S. industry to create new commercial products, applications and processes.

Under the NASA Headquarters' Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Application, the Microgravity Research Program supports NASA's strategic plan in the Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise.

Microgravity research has been performed by NASA for just more than 25 years. The term "microgravity" literally means a state of very little gravity. The prefix "micro" comes from the Greek word mikros, meaning "small." In metric terms, the prefix means "one part in a million" (0.000001).

Gravity dominates everything on Earth, from the way life has developed to the way materials interact. But aboard a spacecraft orbiting the Earth, the effects of gravity are barely felt. In this "microgravity environment," scientists can conduct experiments that are all but impossible to perform on Earth. In this virtual absence of gravity as we know it, space flight gives scientists a unique opportunity to study the states of matter (solids, liquids and gases), and the forces and processes that affect them.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. is the lead center for NASA's Microgravity Research Program. The program manages Microgravity Science and Applications Project Offices at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and also project offices at the Marshall Center.

Under the project offices, the Microgravity Research Program is divided into nine major areas: five science disciplines, three research infrastructure programs and the Space Product Development Office.

The science disciplines include Biotechnology, Fluid Physics, Materials Science, Combustion Science and Fundamental Physics. The infrastructure activities include Acceleration Measurement, Advanced Technology and the Glovebox Flight Programs.

Marshall Center manages the Biotechnology program and Material Science program as well as the Glovebox Flight program and the Space Products Development office. Lewis Research Center manages the Fluid Physics, Combustion Science and Acceleration Measurement programs, while the Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Fundamental Physics and the Advanced Technology Development program. As an element of the Biotechnology Program, Johnson Space Center manages bioreactor research in cell tissue growth.

STS-95 will feature some eight microgravity experiments sponsored by the Space Product Development Office of the Mircogravity Research Program . Also, the mission includes five microgravity science experiments, as well as the Space Acceleration Measurement System and the Microgravity Science Glovebox facility sponsored by the Microgravity Research Program.