NASA’s space-based quantum science lab keeps getting better

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, a major hardware update for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab lifted off aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station. About the size of a small refrigerator, the lab is sometimes called the coolest place in the known universe because of its ability to chill atoms to almost absolute zero. It enables dozens of scientists on Earth to do experiments in quantum science, the study of the fundamental behaviors of atoms and particles that make up the world around us.