The project
The TEXUS project is a sounding rocket program with the primary aim to investigate the properties and behaviour of materials, chemicals and biological substances in a microgravity environment. The TEXUS program gives around six minutes of microgravity.
The TEXUS programme started in 1977 and is carried out at Esrange Space Center jointly by DLR, EADS Astrium, Kayser-Threde and SSC. SSC is responsible for the launch operations. The TEXUS campaigns are sometimes financed by ESA or jointly financed by DLR and ESA.
TEXUS 50/51
The rocket vehicle Skylark 7 was used very successfully for the first 25 years until the motor was no longer available. The Brazilian motor VSB-30 has been used for the TEXUS programme since 2005 and will be used to launch the TEXUS 50 and 51 payloads to around 270 km altitude.
General information
| Launch site | Esrange Space Center |
| Launch date | TEXUS 50, Launched on April 12, 2013 |
Technical information
| Rocket type | VSB 30 rocket |
| Nominal diameter | 557 mm |
| Total weight TEXUS 50 | 2666 kg |
| Total weight TEXUS 51 | 2654,4 kg |
| Apogee | ~261 km |
Experiment modules
| TEXUS 50 payload | |||
| Experiment Module |
Experiment title | Experimenter | Remark |
| TEM EML-5 | Viscosity measurements with levitated liquid metals (EML-5a) | Prof. Dr. A. Meyer,
DLR Köln |
Re-flight from TEXUS 49 |
| TEM EML-5 | Measurement of the dendritic growth velocity as a function of undercooling on Al68.5Ni31.5 in reduced gravity (EML-5b) | Prof. Dr. D. Herlach, DLR Köln |
|
| TEM 06-33 | Investigation of fast gravitropic primary reactions of the fungus Phycomyces blakesleeanus in micro- and hypergravity | Prof. Dr. P. Galland, Universität Marburg | Re-flight from TX 47 with additional spectrometer |
| TEM 06-37 | Isolation of mRNA from microgravity and ground control samples to identify gravity related gene expression | Prof. Dr. K. Palme, Universität Freiburg |
New development based on TEM BIO (TEXUS 44) with new sample containers and additional 1-g reference centrifuge |
|
TEXUS 51 Payload |
|||
| Experiment Module |
Experiment title | Experimenter | Remark |
| TEM 02-3 | Determination of the critical capture velocity of particles during directional solidification of solar silicon in space (ParSiWal) | Dr. J. Friedrich, Fraunhofer Institut Erlangen |
Re-flight from TEXUS 47 with additional functions: rotating sample and magnetic field |
| TEM 06-36 | Fiberlaser-based optical frequency comb in zero gravity (FOKUS) | Dr. R. Holzwarth, MPQ München |
New development with accommodation of an experiment unit from MPQ |
| TEM 06-16 | Signal transduction in cells of the immune system under microgravity conditions (SITI-2) | Prof. Dr. Dr. O. Ullrich, Universität Magdeburg |
Re-flight from TEXUS 49 with additional centrifuge |
| TEM 06-23 | The transition from columnar to equiaxed solidification in a transparent model alloy (TRACE-3) | Dr. G. Zimmermann, ACCESS Aachen |
Re-flight from TEXUS 49 with modified parameters |
Contact persons
Mr. Mikael Töyrä, Project manager, SSC
Mr. Andreas Schütte, Project manager, EADS-Space Transportation
Dr. Otfried Joop, Project Manager, DLR
Mr. Peter Turner, Campaign manager, DLR
Mr. Horst Pfeuffer; KT payload integration manager, Kayser-Threde
