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CAL

Cold Atom Laboratory

A facility designed to fly aboard the International Space Station, the Cold Atom Laboratory, or CAL, will make use the space station's unique microgravity environment to observe quantum phenomena that would otherwise be undetectable from Earth.

Cold Atom Lab Foreground

Mission Statistics

Launch Date

May 21, 2018

Type

Instrument

Target

Stars and Galaxies

Status

Current

About the mission

A facility designed to fly aboard the International Space Station, the Cold Atom Laboratory, or CAL, will make use the space station's unique microgravity environment to observe quantum phenomena that would otherwise be undetectable from Earth. The laboratory will be available for use by multiple scientific investigators and is designed to be maintained on orbit.

The Cold Atom Laboratory launched successfully and was installed on the International Space Station in May 2018, serves as an experiment in the use of laser-cooled atoms for future quantum sensors.

Mission Highlights

May 21, 2018

Launch

CAL was launched on May 21, 2018, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

May 2018

Installation

CAL was installed on the International Space Station in late May.

July 2018

Ultracold Atoms Produced

CAL begins producing clouds of ultracold atoms known as Bose-Einstein condensates.
Target: Earth
Cold Atom Laboratory

The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) consists of two standardized containers that will be installed on the International Space Station. The larger container is called a "quad locker," and the smaller container is called a "single locker." The quad locker contains CAL's physics package, or the compartment where CAL will produce clouds of ultra-cold atoms. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Tyler Winn

About the size of a mini fridge, the Cold Atom Lab Science Instrument (left) contains the Science Module, which cools atoms to nearly absolute zero. The smaller box on the right contains additional hardware.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full Image Details
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