1993
Space milestones
The first BioBox mission concludes
On 10 January, Bion-10 returns to Earth, concluding BioBox’s first operational flight. For the first time, Kayser completes the entire mission cycle of a space biological platform: preparation, launch, operations in orbit and sample return.
TEMISAT takes Kayser onto a microsatellite
In 1993, Kayser participates in TEMISAT, an Italian microsatellite dedicated to collecting and retransmitting environmental data. The company contributes ground support equipment, the operational control centre and operations conducted from its own premises. This experience broadens Kayser’s space expertise beyond biological payloads.
Hubble is repaired in space
Hubble’s first servicing mission installs corrective optical systems that compensate for the flaw in its primary mirror. The intervention demonstrates the value of servicing and upgrading space systems directly in orbit.
Missions & Payloads
TZYCLON
The Italian microsatellite TEMISAT is launched as a secondary payload alongside Meteor-2-21, aboard a Tsiklon-3 launch vehicle. The mission is dedicated to technology demonstrations and data collection.
TEMISAT
TEMISAT, an acronym for Telespazio Micro Satellite, is a microsatellite weighing around 40–42 kg, designed to collect and retransmit environmental data from remote ground stations. It uses a “store and forward” system: it stores the data received as it passes over the stations and subsequently transmits them to collection centres. It is launched on 31 August 1993 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome as a secondary payload alongside the Russian weather satellite Meteor-2-21, and reaches a polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 950 km.
SM
SM is the TEXUS payload service module, designed to support and manage the experimental modules during flight. It provides scientific data acquisition and transmission to Earth, telemetry and telecommand, attitude control and monitoring of microgravity conditions. During the TEXUS 31 mission, it supports four physics and materials science experiments, dedicated to the wettability of the semiconductor alloy GaInSb; bubble nucleation, growth and evaporation; the coagulation of suspensions and colloids; and Marangoni instabilities, associated with fluid motion induced by variations in surface tension.
TEXUS 31
TEXUS 31 is a suborbital mission in the TEXUS programme, dedicated to conducting scientific experiments in microgravity. The sounding rocket is launched from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden.