The Heat Shock Factor A2 (HsfA2), as a part of the HSF network, is essential to the plant's response to almost any environmental stress and to the cellular homeostatic control mechanisms. Plant cell cultures disabled in HsfA2 function were grown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in order to ascertain whether or not they use the same terrestrially effective systems to adapt to the novel environment of spaceflight. Cultured lines of Arabidopsis thaliana derived from wild type (WT) cultivar Col-0 and from a knock-out line deficient in the gene encoding HSFA2 (HSFA2 KO) were launched to the ISS on SpaceX-2 as part of the Cellular Expression Logic (CEL) experiment of the BRIC17 spaceflight mission and were fixed in-flight after 10 days on orbit. Microarray gene expression data were analyzed using a two-part comparative approach. First, differentially expressed genes were identified between the environments (spaceflight to ground) within cells of the same genotype, which represented physiological adaptation to the spaceflight environment. Second, gene expression profiles were identified between the genotypes (HSFA2 KO to WT) within the same environment, defining genes uniquely required by the two genotypes in the ground and spaceflight adapted states. The physiological state of the cells as a result of disabling a gene has tremendous control over the mechanisms induced to adapt to the environment of spaceflight. The HsfA2 demonstrated a role in the physiological adaptation to the spaceflight environment since the cells disabled in the HsfA2 gene used substantially different genes to achieve the spaceflight adapted state than the WT cells. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and unfolded protein response (UPR) define the HSFA2 KO cells' physiological state regardless of the environment and likely result from the deficiency in the chaperone-mediated protein folding machinery. HsfA2 seems to have a universal stress response role but also specific roles in the physiological adaptation to spaceflight through cell wall remodeling, signal perception and transduction and starch biosynthesis. Implementation of knock-out cells identified a set of genes with a required expression level in order for a cell to achieve a spaceflight-adapted state. The HSFA2 KO cells helped to unravel the HsfA2-dependent genes of the adaption of wild type cells to the environment of spaceflight.