Space Industry Experiences and References

Space Projects
The Critical Point Facility (CPF) was developed by Airbus D&S (former DASA RI) under ESA contract. It consists of a very precisely controlled thermostat with interchangeable fluid cells, cameras for observation and light-scattering diagnostics. It was first flown on the IML-1 mission in January 1992. The experiment results obtained during that mission encouraged NASA to include the CPF in the IML-2 payload as well. The CPF has modular slide-in units, which are tailored to provide the optimum conditions for each individual experiment.The picture shows the CPF installed at the NASA Test-Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral (FL) prior to integration into Spacelab
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