Israel’s Ministry of Science explained that space is an optimal environment for conducting biological and chemical experiments and that because of the special environmental conditions there bacteria develop rapid resistance to the drug.
The tiny laboratory, which is the size of a shoe box and weighs 2.3 kg, will carry a total of 53 micro- and nano-satellites from 13 different countries, covering Earth observation, telecommunications, science, technology and education.
The director of the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology, Avi Blasberger, explained that this is a "miniature satellite developed by SpacePharma, which conducts laboratory experiments in space under micro-gravity conditions."
Mr Blasberger said the system was running autonomously. "Such experiments are usually performed by astronauts, hence the importance of launching.
"Space Pharma is currently the only commercial company, except for NASA, with a space research laboratory."
