Redwire science crew members opening the BFF-Meniscus-2 experiment, on the Worldwide House Station Processing Facility. (Picture credit score: Redwire)

A key tissue used to repair a standard damage discovered amongst athletes and U.S. navy members was efficiently 3D printed by astronauts on the Worldwide House Station, in accordance with Redwire. 

In July, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Woody Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and UAE astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi used the 3D BioFabrication Facility on the house station laboratory to print a human knee meniscus. In keeping with Redwire, after the print, the tissue was cultured for 14 days within the orbiting laboratory in Redwire’s Superior House Experiment Processor.

Now that the primary bioprinted half is again on Earth, Redwire is looking the check a profitable experiment. The 3D-printed meniscus was a part of an experiment collection for the Uniformed Providers College of the Well being Sciences Middle for Biotechnology, a analysis heart devoted to biotechnologies to profit troopers.

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The printed meniscus was introduced again to Earth with the Crew 6 astronauts on Crew Dragon over the weekend. After the spacecraft splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, the astronauts had been flown again to Houston. Some experiments, together with the printed tissue, had been delivered to the Kennedy House Middle, the place Redwire groups collected it. 

“This can be a groundbreaking milestone with vital implications for human well being,” mentioned Redwire Govt Vice President John Vellinger. “Demonstrating the power to efficiently print complicated tissue similar to this meniscus is a serious leap ahead towards the event of a repeatable microgravity manufacturing course of for dependable bioprinting at scale.”

Redwire says it plans to launch extra microgravity analysis in November that features bioprinting cardiac tissue.