Astronaut Jessica Meir inspects optical fibers while installing hardware updates to NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, or CAL, aboard the International Space Station on May 8, 2026. About the size of a minifridge, CAL enables researchers to explore quantum physics.NASA
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have switched on NASA’s newly upgraded Cold Atom Lab, a one-of-a-kind facility designed to improve how scientists explore the fundamental workings of matter and develop new quantum technologies. By leveraging the unique environment of microgravity in space, the lab can accomplish cutting-edge science impossible to do anywhere else.
NASA · Public Domain