NASA's Cold Atom Lab Operating Onboard the Intertnational Space Station*

The Cold Atom Lab (CAL) launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2018, and has been operating since that time as the world’s first multi-user facility for the study of ultra-cold atoms in space. The unique microgravity environment of the ISS is utilized with CAL by a national group of principal investigators to achieve exceptionally low temperature gases, to study and utilize their quantum properties in an environment free from the perturbing force of gravity, and to observe and interact with these gases in the essentially limitless free-fall of orbit. In addition to the toolbox of capabilities originally built into CAL, an upgrade in 2020 enabled the study of atom interferometry in orbit, a 2021 upgrade and repair enabled studies with dual-species rubiduim-potassium bosonic gases, and planning is ongoing for a near-term upgrade to further enable novel science with quantum gases in space. We will give an overview of the microgravity enabled quantum gas research explored with CAL to date and discuss near-term projects to study dual-species gases using both rubidium and potassium quantum gases. The impact from this work, and potential for follow-on studies, will also be reviewed in the context of future space-based fundamental physics missions.