MLA Pipettes Sent to Space Station

A blast from the past! If there was ever a true testament to the high quality and performance of MLA pipettes… a trip to space takes the cake.

10 years ago, NASA chose MLA pipettes for a number of planned experiments on the International Space Station.

ISS029-E-011867 (29 Sept. 2011) — NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Expedition 29 commander, works with the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) control box in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station in preparation for another session with the Preliminary Advanced Colloids Experiment (PACE) hardware.

VistaLab’s MLA D-Tipper pipettes were chosen for the mission because of their convenient size and precision engineered metal alloy construction being ideally suited for the challenging environment found in space.  The snapshot above captures a glimpse of our pipettes wrapped and ready for action.

By performing “investigations in space to remove gravitational jamming and sedimentation,” the scientists would “be able to see and control how atomic structures form, and improve the engineering of new systems using colloidal self-assembly.” The work involved delivering “a precise amount of oil onto a test slide for direct measurement using an immersion microscope. After determining and documenting which magnifications [were] usable in an ISS vibration environment, additional experiments [were] implemented to support biological applications during future missions.” (Read the original article: MLA Pipettes Sent to Space Station for Advanced Colloids Experiments, Published on February 16, 2010)

MLA D-Tippers were the perfect pipettes capable of getting the job done; selected specifically by NASA for their outer space mission!

To this day MLA Pipettes have continuously proven to be durable and reliable, with some labs using theirs for decades. And if you’ve ever wondered how durable MLA pipettes are, just also ask NASA. Learn more about MLA Pipettes for your ‘out-of-this-world’ research!