CSS employee owners on contract with NASA delivered six newly prepared Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA)—a high temperature furnace with temperature and timing control for melting samples to create different materials and alloys—samples for the NG-23 launch, which took place on September 14, 2025. On this mission, samples are being delivered for testing on the International Space Station.  

CSS staff prepare these samples by integrating the Principal Investigators science into hardware specific components and conducting tests prior to flight to ensure they will function as planned. They then delivered the samples to NASA’s Cargo Mission Contract at Johnson Space Center for loading onto the NG-23 cargo module. 

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Beakers on a lab counter

An Approach to Assessing Laboratory Space 

CSS employee owners were part of a team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health who developed an approach to evaluating new laboratory space to determine if the space will fit operational needs. This concept, titled The BaseLINE Approach, combines traditional safety processes with additional safety and environmental factors to assess before operations begin.…

large colony of Elkhorn Coral

Revamping Coral Reef Conservation Program Website

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program is a cross-NOAA program that focuses on resilience-based management of U.S. coral reef ecosystems and provides scientific data and information to coral reef managers, scientists, educators and the interested public. CSS employee owners recently played an integral role in updating the website with a fresh new look and reorganizing content…

Organizing Teams to Monitor Coastal Contaminants

For nearly 40 years NOAA’s National Mussel Watch Program has been monitoring contaminants in coastal waters in over 400 sites around the U.S. by testing sediment and bivalves, such as oysters and mussels. A CSS employee owner organizes and coordinates the regional missions to collect and test samples. This includes developing a schedule and coordinating…