The SpaceX International Space Station (ISS) Cargo Resupply Mission launched on March 15 from Cape Canaveral, Florida successfully transported 12 pieces of hardware designed and manufactured by Teledyne Brown Engineering.

This hardware will be used in the Ring Sheared Drop (RSD) experiment facility aboard the ISS. The experiment’s goal is to understand and control protein aggregation in systems with large protein concentration in the presence of free surfaces. Protein concentration on free surfaces is currently an issue for the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

The science hardware developed and integrated by Teledyne Brown Engineering on the SpX-27 mission includes six frozen sample syringes with protein solution and six refurbished test cells.

The company’s process ensures that the sample syringes remain at precise cold temperatures from laboratory pick-up through launch and on-orbit operations.

This cargo will support the second series of investigations in RSD on ISS in 2023 called Interfacial Bioprocessing of Pharmaceuticals (IBP). Teledyne is also supporting the development, evaluation, and upload of new flight software for science video data compression to be used by operators during future on-orbit experiments.

“We are thrilled to see the progression of this program and to have supported its success over the last 5 years”, stated Scott Hall, President of Teledyne Brown Engineering. “Our company is dedicated to this important cause which we hope will assist in the development of the newest generation of medicines, such as those for treating cancers and other diseases.”

Teledyne Brown Engineering, working with the science team at Rensselaer Pyrotechnic Institute (RPI) in New York, designed, developed, and integrated RSD on the ISS under contract to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

RSD consists of a Teledyne Brown Engineering designed and manufactured device which uses the microgravity of space to suspend a one-inch diameter drop of liquid between two rings. One ring rotates while the other is stationary, creating a shear flow in the liquid drop to aid in the study of how complex fluids behave.

Understanding this behavior will help with medicinal production and advances. Microscopes equipped with digital cameras record the data for downlink to scientists on Earth in near real-time. The experiments can range from minutes to days of continuous operations.

RSD and the IBP experiments operate in NASA’s Microgravity Science Glovebox.