Biosatellite 2, also known as Biosat 2 or Biosatellite B, was the second mission in NASA's

Biosatellite program NASA's Biosatellite program was a series of three uncrewed artificial satellites to assess the effects of spaceflight, especially radiation and weightlessness, on living organisms. Each was designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere and be recovered ...

for biological research. It was launched on September 7, 1967, by a Delta G rocket from

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Biosatellite 2 carried 13 biological experiments involving

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s and

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

s. The mission was ended early because of a

tropical storm A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

threat in the recovery area and communication problems between the capsule and

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

s. The main objective of the mission was to determine if the radiation sensitivity of living organisms in space is greater or less than on land, for which disposed of a radiation source in front of the capsule. The satellite is currently the property of the National Air and Space Museum, reference numbe
A19731629000
It is currently on loan to the

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) is a science museum located in Chicago, Illinois, in Jackson Park (Chicago), Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood between Lake Michigan and The University of Chicago. It is house ...

Experiments

* Effects of Weightlessness on Wheat Seedling

Morphogenesis Morphogenesis (from the Greek ''morphê'' shape and ''genesis'' creation, literally "the generation of form") is the biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of devel ...

and

Histochemistry Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is the most common application of immunostaining. It involves the process of selectively identifying antigens (proteins) in cells of a tissue section by exploiting the principle of antibodies binding specifically to ant ...

* Growth

Physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

of the Wheat Seedling in Space *

Biochemical Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology an ...

Changes in the Developing Wheat Seedling in a Weightless State * Effect of Sub-gravity on the Dividing Egg of Rana Pipiens * Mutational Response of Habrobracon * Liminal Angle of a Plagiogeotropic Organ * Effects of Radiation and Weightlessness on Tribolium Pupae * Effects of Weightlessness on Radiation Induced Somatic Dam. in Drosophila Larvae * Effects of Space on Radiation-Induced Damage to Reproductive Cells of Drosophila Adults and Pupae *

Gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

tic and

Cytologic Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

Studies of Tradescantia Irradiated During Flight * Combined Effects of Weightlessness and Radiation on Inact.+ Mutation in Neurospora * Space Flight Effects +

Gamma Radiation A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically s ...

Interaction on Growth + Induc.of

Bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

* Effect of Weightlessness on

Amoeba An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of Cell (biology), cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and ret ...

, Pelomyxa Carolinensis *Effects of Weightlessness on the Nutrition and Growth of Pelomyxa carolinensis

References

External links

NASA Facts Biosatellite II
Scribd 1967 in spaceflight Biosatellites Spacecraft launched by Delta rockets {{satellite-stub

Experiments

See also

References

External links