Space Wine: All Systems Go for Tasting

by Paige Donner

A little more than a year after the 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine were rocketed up into orbit for space ageing, they’ve now safely landed back down to Earth.

Just last week, thanks to NASA and its collaborator, SpaceX Dragon Capsule, the 12 bottles of wine along with 320 grapevine clippings (160 of Cabernet Sauvignon and 160 of Merlot), splashed safely back down to Earth just off Tampa, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.

NASA

The bottles will now remain closed until the end of February 2021 when a team of distinguished oenologists and tasters, many of whom supported Space Cargo Unlimited’s mission in this undertaking, will have the chance to taste the year-long space aged wines against their Earth bound equivalents. The University of Bordeaux’s Philippe Dorriet is the lead Prime Investigator on this research.

What’s the true purpose of this near-zero gravity wine and vine ageing experiment on the International Space Station? ‘Agriculture science, says Nicolas Gaume, co-founder of Space Cargo Unlimlited. “Our goal is to tackle the solution of how we’re going to have an agriculture tomorrow that is both organic and healthy and able to feed humanity, and we think space has the key,”

NASA champions biological science experiments in space that can have a beneficial outcome for us here on Earth. Science experiments are the main purpose and occupation of the astronauts’ extended stays on the ISS.

(SEE PREVIOUS ARTICLE FOR BACKGROUNDER November 2019)

The next step in this space wine analysis?

WYBStudy

Will focus on the effects of microgravity on bacteria and yeasts investigating the possibility of generating new secondary metabolites for the health and agrifood sectors”

At this point in time, SpaceX is the only shipper capable of returning space station experiments and other items intact. The other cargo capsules are filled with trash and burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Though Relativity, the 3D rocket printing company, has its eyes on this prize, too.