NASA’s SpaceX CRS-35 Mission to Launch Health Research

NASA is preparing for the SpaceX 35th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission, which will transport experiments focused on human and plant health, as well as drug-resistant organisms, to the International Space Station (ISS). Launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, this mission aims to advance research beneficial for life on Earth and future space exploration. The agency's Biological and Physical Sciences division is supporting four key investigations to aid astronaut health during long-duration missions.

One investigation involves sending small, lab-grown models of the human brain to the ISS for five weeks. Researchers will compare these space-travelled tissue models with identical ones kept on Earth to understand how short spaceflights affect the human brain at a cellular level. This effort, a precision health investigation, seeks to deepen understanding of brain responses to stress and lay groundwork for countering risks to astronaut brain health on future missions to the Moon and beyond.

Another experiment, a space crops investigation, will test whether crop diseases develop faster and more severely in microgravity. It compares molecular and structural changes between Earth-grown and space station-grown plants infected with a disease-causing fungus. Findings from this study could guide plant breeding on Earth to produce disease-resistant crops and minimize yield losses in future space agriculture systems, which are crucial for nutrition, dietary variety, and psychological benefits for astronauts. Space crops also absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and recycle water, becoming more vital as missions extend farther from Earth.

The CRS-35 mission also carries the first test of a compact microplate reader, which arrived at the space station earlier this year. This Commercially Enabled Rapid Space Science initiative experiment will assess the device's ability to detect and measure biomarkers such as antibodies, antigens, and proteins. The plate reader would allow scientists to analyze samples on the ISS and obtain data quickly, eliminating the wait for samples to return to Earth. This research ultimately aims to support timely detection of infections and health issues in astronauts and expand science capabilities in remote exploration locations where resupply is challenging. Furthermore, a precision health investigation returns for its fourth and final planned stay aboard the space station to study how antibiotic-resistant bacteria survive and evolve in microgravity, with astronauts repeatedly sampling surfaces to monitor drug-resistant organisms. This work could help protect astronauts against bacterial infections during long-duration missions and provide insight into how superbugs develop on Earth from antibiotic overuse.

What to watch: Continued advancements in space health and agriculture research on the ISS.

Editor's note: The draft effectively synthesizes all four investigations mentioned in the source, maintaining accuracy and providing necessary context.