Update 7 for November 5: ET: Northrop Grumman is now scheduled to launch the Antares rocket and Cygnus NG-18 cargo ship from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility at 5:32 a.m. EST (1032 GMT) today.
Ovary cells from cows are on their way to the space station, along with a host of other exciting science experiments.
The latest International Space Station (ISS) launch comes courtesy of a Northrop Grumman robot cygnus cargo spacecraft, will blast off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Station in Wallops Island, Virginia, aboard the company’s Antares rocket no sooner than 5:50 a.m. EST (1050 GMT) Sunday (Nov. 6). You can watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television. Coverage begins 20 minutes prior to kickoff.
After arriving and installing at the ISS on Tuesday (November 8), the bovine cell bonanza (OVOSPACE (opens in new tab)) will see how it is microgravity affects cell growth. Andrew Fuso, the experiment’s principal investigator, told Space.com that it could eventually have applications for human fertility treatments.
“This is really our first approach, and it’s currently an observational study,” Fuso, an associate professor at Rome’s Sapienza University, said during a live press conference in October. 25. Once the results are in, investigators will look into possible drug interventions or nutritional supplements to improve fertility outcomes in future studies, he added.
Related: NASA-funded spacesuit technology could help ease menopause
Also known as a 3D printer in an orbiting laboratory Biofabrication Facility (opens in new tab)In 2019, it reached space to print some human knee cartilage (specifically, the meniscus) and a number of human heart cells.
“We brought it [the printer] We went back to our lab in Indiana … to add a few new features, like the ability to finally monitor the temperature of each printhead, and we’re excited to see it go live now,” said Rich Boling, vice president of corporate development, aerospace manufacturing and operations at Redwire Space at the same conference. for.
Related: A bioprinter will 3D print human tissue on the space station
After another space launch, Redwire will print the new meniscus and study it in the lab to prepare for possible future patient transplants, Bolling said. Blood vessels and heart tissue will also be produced. Redwire also plans to test the drug’s effectiveness in space on “organoids,” or miniature versions of organs.
Boling indicated that such investigations will continue reef orbital, a Redwire-powered commercial space station being developed for flight in the 2030s. He leads the project blue origin and includes partners such as Sierra Space Boeing and Amazon.
Also included are some of the other experiments that debuted in space Words from NASA (opens in new tab):
- Assessment of plant adaptation to space: Plants exposed to spaceflight undergo changes that involve adding extra information to their DNA, which regulates how genes are turned on and off, but does not change the sequence of the DNA. This process is known as epigenetic changes. Plant Habitat-03 (opens in new tab) evaluates whether such adaptations from one generation of space-grown plants are passed on to the next generation.
- Mud mixes: Climate change and global warming are causing an increase in wildfires. When a wildfire burns vegetation, the burned chemicals create a thin layer of soil that repels rainwater. The rain then erodes the soil and can turn into catastrophic flash floods that carry heavy rocks and debris down, causing significant damage to infrastructure, watersheds and human life. Mud Microstructure After Wildfire (opens in new tab) evaluates the composition of these flood flows, including sand, water and compressed air.
- First satellites from Uganda and Zimbabwe: BIRD-5 (opens in new tab) The constellation of CubeSats is: PEARLAFRICASAT-1, the first satellite developed by Uganda; ZIMSAT-1, Zimbabwe’s first satellite; and TAKA from Japan. BIRDS-5 performs multispectral observations of the Earth using a commercial off-the-shelf camera and demonstrates a high-energy electronic measurement instrument. The collected data can help distinguish bare land from forest and agricultural land and possibly indicate the quality of agricultural development.
- Space station power supply: Preparation for installation of equipment to be installed outside the station Proliferating Solar Arrays (opens in new tab).
Elizabeth Howell co-authored “Why Am I Tall? (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow him on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
