Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, left, NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, second from left, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, right, inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
HOUSTON—Just more than a week after returning to Earth after a 186-day mission to the International Space Station, three of NASA’s four Crew-6 astronauts expressed satisfaction with their contributions to a work agenda that included 280 science investigations and technology demonstrations.
NASA astronauts Steven Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev splashed down in their SpaceX Crew-6 Dragon capsule for a recovery early Sept. 4.
“The variety is really incredible,” Hoburg told a Sept. 12 news briefing hosted by NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He was responding to a question regarding the range, engagement and satisfaction that comes from the breadth of science and technology activities underway aboard the seven-person orbital outpost.
“What surprised me is there is just so much to do. You can’t get too wrapped up and focused on any one of the science projects you are working on,” Bowen said.
However, Hoburg was moved to spotlight one involving Redwire’s 3D Biofabrication Facility, which managed over the summer to bioprint the first human knee meniscus tissue by taking advantage of the orbital lab’s microgravity environment. The meniscus sample returned to Earth aboard the Crew-6 Dragon for a research assessment. Orthopedic injuries to knee meniscus are common among military members, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Center for Biotechnology is among those leading the study effort.
“It actually took some trial and error. There were some step backs throughout our mission. But by the end we had successfully printed the meniscus,” said Hoburg, an electrical engineer and computer scientist.
“That facility is now going on to do some cardiac cell and blood vessel cell activities in the future. So that is going to be really cool. Those are structures with the viscosity of the liquids and sedimentation and settling that you would have in 1g [Earth gravity] that you just can’t do that research on Earth. So, it’s a kind of a technology demonstration to be able to do these things in weightlessness in low Earth orbit. That was really rewarding to work on.”
Alneyadi spoke with enthusiasm about the research as he recalled working on a heart cell function experiment in collaboration with ground-based researchers.
“Honestly, the best part of it is when you experience the reactions from the scientists. You will be on the headphone and you will be applying some medication or maybe just moving the samples under a microscope,” he recalled. “You feel the real excitement. You feel how important the mission is and why we go to space and why we explore. It’s a unique environment to give us insight for biofabrication or the effectiveness of medications. It’s really amazing and humbling to be part of such an effort.”
Joining Bowen, Hoburg and Alneyadi for their March 2 launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and their return to Earth was Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who was flown back to Russia after splashing down and was not available for the news briefing.
The mission was Bowen’s fourth trip to space and the first for his three companions.
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