Microgravity

The space station is designed to be a permanent orbiting research facility. Its major purpose is to perform world-class science and research that only a microgravity environment can provide.

The microgravity environment of space makes the ISS a unique laboratory for the testing of spacecraft systems that will be required for future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.

The two cosmonauts looked at microgravity’s effect on pain sensitivity and bone tissue.

A microgravity ceremony ushers in a new commander of the International Space Station. An old space telescope finds something new in the cosmos. And a futuristic helmet to study astronauts’ brain waves.

In microgravity their arteries are thickening and stiffening and the muscle of the heart weakening and shrinking.