Basic Science in Orbit

Studying biology in space sheds light on future space missions and life on Earth.

abby olena
| 6 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
6:00
Share

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3, carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft on SpaceX’s eleventh Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station.FLICKR, SPACEXLast month, more than 4,000 fruit fly eggs and adults began the summer vacation of their short lives. Riding in vials inside six tissue box–size containers, the flies were loaded onto a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and launched out of the Earth’s atmosphere, headed for the International Space Station (ISS). They spent a month orbiting Earth before returning in the Dragon and splashing down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, where they were collected by barge and rushed to the lab of Karen Ocorr at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) in San Diego, California.

“Imagine dissecting 4,000 flies over [a few] days,” Ocorr tells The Scientist. In addition to dissecting plenty of flies herself, she coordinated the work of up to 20 people working 12–18 hour days to process the insects after their return. “We’ll be swimming in data for the next couple of months, and we also we had them lay eggs [before we sacrificed them], so that we can look at the next generation,” she adds.

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on the morning of July 3.NASA, SPACEXThe researchers face three more long weeks of data collection from the control flies and the progeny of the returned flies, not to mention the time and effort necessary to make sense of it all. But the labor and cost—about $40,000 per box of flies just to send them into space and bring them back—are worth it for Ocorr and her collaborators at SBP and the NASA Ames Research Center. The goal of the project, called Fruit Fly Lab-02, is to study the effects of microgravity on fly cardiac development, gene expression, and function.

“The fruit fly heart is remarkably similar in many respects to the human heart,” says Ocorr. Fruit flies also have the advantage of being small—essential for ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • abby olena

    Abby Olena, PhD

    As a freelancer for The Scientist, Abby reports on new developments in life science for the website.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio