HUNTSVILLE – ELVIS hasn’t left the building, aka International Space Station, but a Huntsville-based company helped the project take center stage for NASA.
Teledyne Brown Engineering served as implementation partner for the Extant Life Volumetric Imaging System (ELVIS) project, a groundbreaking holographic microscope designed to study microbial life in space.
Developed in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Portland State University, ELVIS was launched to the International Space Station on April 22.
“The ELVIS mission represents a major leap forward in our ability to study life in space,” said TBE President Scott Hall. “We are proud to have played a key role in enabling this innovative research, which will deepen our understanding of cellular life beyond Earth.”
After achieving its scientific objectives, the system wrapped up its mission and operations concluded June 6. The hardware and biological samples will return to Earth, where they will undergo transcriptomic sequencing and be compared with ground-based controls.
Under contract to the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, manager of the ISS National Laboratory, TBE provided comprehensive support to Portland State, ensuring the ELVIS system’s integration and operation on the space station.
TBE’s contributions included launch vehicle and ISS integration and verification, engineering and design assistance, interface and safety test support, system safety documentation (data packages, hazard reports, verifications), cold stowage integration, and operations planning support.
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