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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 Concludes Space Station Scientific Mission

Melissa L. Gaskill

Oct 01, 2024
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NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin are returning to Earth after months aboard the International Space Station conducting scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission. The four launched on March 3 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Here’s a look at some scientific milestones accomplished during their mission:

Revealing resistant microorganisms

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps extracts DNA for the Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space experiment, which surveys the station for antibiotic-resistant organisms and sequences their DNA to examine adaptations to space. Results could support development of measures to protect astronauts and people in buildings and facilities on Earth, such as hospitals, from resistant bacteria.

Epps, wearing a black t-shirt, pants, headband, and white gloves, uses a pipette to fill a rack of small vials. The rack sits on a blue metal work surface along with other equipment and cords. A laptop is attached to the Velcro strips on her pants leg.
NASA

Brain organoid models

NASA astronaut Mike Barratt processes samples for Human Brain Organoid Models for Neurodegenerative Disease & Drug Discovery. This investigation uses human brain organoids created with stem cells from patients to study neuroinflammation, a common feature of neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. The organoids provide a platform to study these diseases and their treatments and to potentially address how extended spaceflight affects the brain.

Wearing a long-sleeved dark blue shirt, a headset, and glasses, Barratt is looking through the clear top of the Life Sciences Glovebox. His gloved hands inside the box hold two sample syringes, and two more are taped to the back wall of the box.
NASA

Bioprinting human tissues

Tissue samples bioprinted in microgravity are higher quality than those printed on the ground. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick processes cardiac tissue samples for the Redwire Cardiac Bioprinting Investigation. Results could advance the production of organs and tissues for transplant and improve 3D printing of foods and medicines on future long-duration space missions.

Dominick, wearing a headlamp and black polo shirt with a US flag decal on the left sleeve, smiles at the camera. His arms are inside the plastic sleeves of a portable glovebox, and a laptop is visible just above and to the left of the glovebox.
NASA

Growing better drugs

NASA astronaut Mike Barratt works on Pharmaceutical In-space Laboratory – 02, which uses the station’s Advanced Space Experiments Processor to study how microgravity affects the production of various types of protein crystals. The ability to produce better crystals could lead to manufacturing improvements and new applications and better performance for pharmaceutical compounds, potentially providing more positive patient experiences.

Barratt is wearing a dark blue t-shirt, green pants, and a headset. He is peering at his hands inside the sleeves of a portable glovebox, holding a sample cassette, a silver box the size and shape of a briefcase.
NASA

Alloy solidification

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps works on Materials Science Lab Batch 3a, two projects investigating the solidification of metallic alloys in space. Insights gained could help improve alloy solidification processes on the ground, supporting the development of materials with superior chemical and physical properties for applications in space and on Earth.

Wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and white gloves, Epps is smiling and holding a silver soup-can-sized canister in her left hand and guiding a long silver rod attached to it into an opening in the Material Science Laboratory, a metal circular device with white plastic edging.
NASA

Fueling the flames

The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction- Growth and Extinction Limit investigation determines how fuel temperature affects material flammability. This image shows the fuel surface during a burn (the black part of the sphere) and the distance traveled by the flame (blue). Results could improve researchers’ understanding of fire growth and inform the development of optimal fire suppression techniques to protect crews on future missions.

An acrylic sphere hangs from a rod in the middle of this image, a bright blue flame arcing around the bottom of it. The sphere is mottled black on its lower two-thirds and smooth near its top. A greenish, unburned sphere hangs off to its left, and a bright green wire coil (the igniter) is visible in the lower foreground. The entire image is tinged green.
NASA

Very long-distance calls

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps wraps up an ISS Ham Radio session on April 10, with students in Italy. The program connects students and enthusiasts with astronauts in space via amateur radio. Participants study space, radio waves, and related topics to prepare questions before their scheduled call.

Epps, smiling at the camera, is wearing a black t-shirt and headband, holding a tablet in her left hand and placing the mic on the wall-mounted ham radio with her right. A video camera is mounted just above it. The walls around her are covered in multiple cords, rails, and straps, and just over her right shoulder are several mission stickers on a wall.
NASA

Student robotics competition

For Astrobee-Zero Robotics, students compete to have their code control one of the space station’s Astrobee robots. The experience helps inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers. NASA astronaut Mike Barratt works with the Astrobee robot named Bumble during operations for the project.

Barratt, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt with an expedition patch on its chest, faces the camera. Just to his right floats Bumble, a cube-shaped robot about the size of a toaster oven. Its sides are black with a white panel in the middle that has camera lenses and two bright blue lights near the bottom. There is a laptop to his right.
NASA

Immune function in space

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps prepares samples for Immunity Assay, a study of how spaceflight affects immune function. Previously, astronaut immune function could only be examined pre- and postflight, but a newly developed assay allows for testing during flight. This capability provides a more precise assessment of the immune changes that happen in space.

Epps wears a red t-shirt, black pants, and white gloves. She is holding a large syringe in her right hand and is using a blue clip in her left hand to attach a sample tube to the blue lab work table. There are multiple plastic bags across the front of the table and a cluster of pink bags on its upper right. The wall behind it holds various supplies, such as tape, scissors, and pens.
NASA

Getting weighed in weightlessness

The Space Linear Acceleration Mass Measurement Device calculates a crew member’s mass based on Newton’s Second Law of Motion, which states force equals mass times acceleration. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick performs maintenance on the device, used in support of multiple NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) investigations on how spaceflight affects the body.

Dominick, wearing a red t-shirt and dark green pants, is looking down and smiling. In front of him is a square silver brace with blue padding on its end with silver arms extending above and below it, also with blue padding. Above the brace is a large schematic poster showing how to use the device, and a laptop is mounted off to the left.
NASA

Satellites for science

NASA astronaut Mike Barratt prepares for the Nanoracks Cubesat Deployer Mission 27on April 16. The mission deployed seven research satellites: a reflectometer to measure sea ice, tests of telemetry instruments and solar cells, a hyperspectral thermal imager, a gamma-ray burst detector, a new remote sensing technique, and a magnetic field measurement test.

Barratt, wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, khaki pants, and white gloves, looks at the camera and gestures at the hardware in front of him, two large rectangular drawers mounted sideways on a rack extending out from a circular hatch behind him. The open door of the hatch is to his left, and the blue and yellow boxy Astrobee robots are attached to their docks on the wall to his right.
NASA

Remote-controlled robots

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps remotely manipulates a robot on the ground for Surface Avatar. The investigation tests system ergonomics, operator response to feedback, and the potential challenges for actual orbit-to-ground remote control. Such operation is an important capability for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.

Epps wears a long-sleeved black shirt and a headset and uses her right hand to interact with a laptop mounted to the wall in front of her. On the screen is a simulation of a robot operating on a planetary surface.
NASA

The power of photographs

NASA astronauts Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, and Loral O’Hara take photographs in the station’s cupola, adding to the more than 4.7 million images produced for Crew Earth Observations. These images support scientific studies on topics ranging from aquatic organisms and icebergs to the effects of artificial lighting at night and inform the response of decision-makers to natural disasters such as volcanoes and floods.

Three astronauts, all wearing black, are facing the camera in the cupola, where Earth is visible through the window above them. Barratt, on the left, holds a handrail with his left hand and points a camera toward Earth with his right hand, squinting his left eye. Dominick, center, smiles up at the window, and O’Hara, on the right, uses both hands to point a camera with a large lens at Earth. The camera obscures her face.
NASA

Reflections on the Moon

For Earthshine from ISS, astronauts photograph the Moon throughout the lunar cycle to study changes in the light it reflects from Earth. Results could help validate the concept of observing Earth’s climate from satellite-borne instruments and add to researchers’ understanding of how the planet’s climate is changing.

The Moon is a bright white crescent in the center of this image, surrounded by the blackness of space.
NASA

Packing a Dragon

NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick and Tracy C. Dyson pack frozen samples into the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for return to Earth and analysis by researchers. The spacecraft launched to the orbiting laboratory on March 21 for NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply services mission, carrying scientific experiments and supplies, and returned to Earth on April 30.

Dominick, in the foreground, is wearing a blue t-shirt and special black and blue gloves, facing the camera, and holding one of the cold storage trays, a silver metal basket the size of a cat carrier. Behind him is Dyson, wearing a red t-shirt and the same kind of gloves and holding a black box between her hands. Four circular doors to the cold stowage unit are on the wall in front of Dominick.
NASA

Cygnus delivers

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm before being released from the space station on July 12. NASA’s Northrop Grumman 20th commercial resupply services mission arrived Feb. 1 with experiments on 3D printing, robotic surgery, tissue cartilage, and more.

At the top of the image are the curved silver undersides of three of the space station’s modules. A long, jointed robotic arm extends down from the module on the right. Attached to its end is the silver cylindrical spacecraft with two round, gold solar panels on either side. The blue Earth is visible to the left, and sunlight glints off Cygnus.
NASA

Melissa Gaskill

International Space Station Research Communications Team

NASA’s Johnson Space Center

Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article. Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned in this article.

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