Nine months after the astrobiological experiments on EXPOSE-E were launched to their destination on the EuTEF platform on Columbus, the second ESA facility EXPOSE-R was successfully launched on November 26th, on a Progress carrier from Baikonur. EXPOSE-R will be accommodated outside the Russian module of the ISS on the URM-D platform during an EVA scheduled for December 23rd, 2008. The more than 1000 biological, chemical and dosimetric samples from 8 international scientific groups were accommodated at DLR/MUSC and will be exposed to the harsh environment of space for more than one year. After their return to Earth, they will be distributed to the laboratories of the scientists and analysed. Coordination of the flight and ground experiments of EXPOSE-R, pre-flight tests, and the mission parallel ground simulation of an identical set of samples and hardware in the Planetary and Space Simulation Facilities PSI at DLR will be performed by MUSC /DLR. EXPOSE-R Payload Monitoring and Control will be performed by DLR/MUSC in cooperation with Roskosmos, ESA, and the Payload Developer Kayser-Threde Munich. The astrobiological experiments onboard ISS in both EXPOSE-E and EXPOSE-R, also from the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology, DLR, will increase our knowledge on the origin, evolution and distribution of life.
Baikonur, November 26th, 2008