CGBA
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams manipulating CGBA hardware during the experiment
CGBA loaded with PHABs
NASA astronaut Dan Bursch in front of CGBA installed into an EXPRESS rack
A Reliable Workhorse for Temperature Control
The Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) is a dual-function incubator/freezer capable of operation between -16 °C and 37 °C depending on configuration. In the past, it has supported numerous experiments on ISS, Mir, Space Shuttle, Dragon, and Cygnus. Although CGBA has been largely superseded by BioServe's next-generation incubator SABL, there is still one CGBA unit installed on ISS for contingency use and BioServe maintains the capability to fly additional CGBA units on the Dragon and Cygnus vehicles as needed to provide temperature control to experiments in transit. In its heyday, CGBA supported complex experiment hardware such as ScanCam and CSI investigations. Currently, CGBA's operations are largely restricted to passive temperature control with more complex experiments being handled by SABL.
CGBA's first mission was STS-50 in 1992. In its 25+ year history, CGBA underwent numerous upgrades while maintaining the same basic design.
Full technical specifications for CGBA are available upon request. Contact us to learn more.
Features
- Refrigerator-mode temperature range: 4 °C to 37 °C (27 L experiment volume)
- Freezer-mode temperature range: -16 °C to 37 °C (13 L experiment volume)
- Accelerator-based launch detection for automatic experiment initiation once in-orbit
- Near-real time data feed
- Designed for easy crew access, if necessary
