Space

Through the GIE CRYOSPACE and its Advanced Technology Division (near Grenoble) Air Liquide designs and implements all the cryogenic tanks for the ARIANE 5 launcher and the related equipment.
Air Liquide has been particularly proactive in the search for new technologies alongside CNES and the ESA, and is now investigating potential upgrades for Ariane 5 after 2015 and designs for the launchers of the future after 2025.

In the field of orbital cryogenics, the new cryogenic techniques can be used to meet a wide range of requirements: preserving biological samples taken on the International Space Station with the Melfi system, observing the thermal radiation of the universe in a vast range of wavelengths with the Planck and Herschel systems and cooling the infrared sensors on Earth observation satellites. Air Liquide is also preparing the technologies for flights to explore the solar system.

Air Liquide implements, tests and optimizes installations and connections related to the cryogenic lines on launch pads. Some of its teams, as an integral part of the Guyana Space Centre, provide the propulsion fluids (liquid hydrogen and oxygen) and the helium needed for pressurization, cool-down and cleansing.
Air Liquide also designs simulation chambers and test rigs so that the extreme conditions to which the satellites and their components are subjected can be reproduced on the ground.