Launch Photos: Orbital ATK's Antares Rocket & Cygnus OA-9 Soar to ISS!

News
By published

The Cold Atom Laboratory

NASA/iGoal Animation

The Cold Atom Lab (CAL) will create a spot aboard the International Space Station 10 billion times colder than the vacuum of space.

A CAL Timeline

NASA

NASA's CAL Mission began in 2012 and will continue through 2020.

Loading Up CAL

NASA

These photos show NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory being integrated into the Cygnus cargo spacecraft in anticipation of the Antares rocket launch on May 21, 2018.

E. Coli in Space?

Wikimedia Commons

Scientists at the University of Alaska Anchorage are exploring how genetically modified E. Coli would produce isobutane in one experiment on the Cygnus OA-9.

Only the BEST

NASA

The BEST experiment is looking to advance sequencing in space and understand how microbes react to the unique environments aboard the International Space Station.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.