From June 15 to 19, 2026, Philipp Richthof, David Sipos, and Sebastian Scholpp from the Biomedical Printing Technology research group traveled to Magdeburg to advance preparations for the upcoming CellBox-5 mission of the German Space Agency at DLR as part of the Integration Sequence Test (IST). The TU Darmstadt project cOSmicStrain is one of eight German university teams that will conduct biological and biomedical experiments in low Earth orbit onboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026/27.

The IST focused on testing the ScienceShells under realistic conditions: the hardware was assembled in the sterile workbench, all components were checked for proper function, and the ScienceTaxi from the company Yuri was put into operation, serving as the autonomous control unit that manages fully automated experiment operations on board. Alongside the technical testing, the week in Magdeburg also offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with the other participating research groups and gain insight into the wide range of scientific questions being sent into microgravity as part of the German Space Agency at DLR’s CellBox-Mission. For the team, it was a valuable opportunity to get to know their own hardware under mission-like conditions and to prepare together for the upcoming space mission.