Orbitec to provide hardware for international space station

With two new federal contracts secured from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Orbital Technologies, Corp. of Madison, (aka Orbitec) will soon provide engineering support and flight hardware to the international space station.

The high-tech development company received about $404,000 to develop hardware for an expandable system to grow vegetables on long space flights. Another $265,000 will be spent on developing and constructing an Advanced Plant Habitat, an environmentally controlled growth chamber that could grow plants for food, convert carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen, and convert water waste into drinkable water.