1996
Space milestones
Kayser boards the Space Shuttle
With STS-76, Kayser enters a new phase: its experience on Russian capsules is joined by Space Shuttle missions and activities linked to the future International Space Station. The experience gained with ESA and in European programmes also brings the company into direct contact with NASA’s operational system.
GABRIEL brings boiling into microgravity
GABRIEL studies bubble formation and detachment under reduced gravity, using an electric field to control heat transfer. Following parabolic flight campaigns, the payload developed by Kayser flies on MASER-7, completing a journey from ground-based experimentation to suborbital microgravity.
Italy’s role in human spaceflight grows
Umberto Guidoni flies aboard mission STS-75. This strengthens Italy’s presence in human spaceflight, a field that will also become central to Kayser’s activities in subsequent years.
The NEAR Shoemaker mission launches
NEAR Shoemaker is launched, the first mission in NASA’s Discovery programme. The probe is destined to become the first to orbit an asteroid, opening new possibilities for the close-up study of these celestial bodies.
Missions & Payloads
STS 76
Third Space Shuttle docking mission with the Mir station. Atlantis transports personnel, supplies and scientific hardware, contributing to the activities of the Shuttle-Mir programme.
BIORACK
ESA multidisciplinary facility for life sciences experiments. It includes incubators, a glovebox for handling samples and refrigerated systems for preserving cells, tissues, microorganisms and small organisms before and after experiments. Used in the Spacelab laboratory aboard the Space Shuttle, it enables the effects of microgravity on living systems to be studied.
GABRIEL
Experimental system dedicated to studying boiling under reduced gravity and in the presence of an electric field. During the campaign aboard the Cessna Citation II, the apparatus is subjected to different acceleration levels to observe how bubble formation and detachment change as buoyancy decreases. The campaign comprises 41 usable parabolas, each with around 10 seconds of microgravity.
GABRIEL
Fluid physics payload developed by Kayser Italia to study boiling and heat transfer in microgravity in the presence of an electric field. It comprises two experimental chambers, high-voltage electrodes and video systems to observe bubble formation and detachment. In 1996, it flies aboard the MASER-7 sounding rocket. The experiment investigates how to control boiling when gravity no longer assists bubble detachment and movement, contributing to research into space thermal systems.
MASER 7
European suborbital mission dedicated to experimentation in microgravity. Among the experiments on board is GABRIEL, a payload designed to study boiling and heat transfer under reduced gravity.
CESNA
Parabolic flight campaign hosting the GABRIEL payload, dedicated to studying boiling under reduced gravity. The flights allow bubble behaviour to be observed during the microgravity phases.