The red wine from Bordeaux will age for a year in space before being brought back down to Earth. Researchers want to whether weightlessness and space radiation affects the ageing process. The intention is to develop new flavours and properties for the food industry.
The bottles launched aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus capsule on Saturday and it arrived at the International Space Station yesterday.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure
Space Cargo Unlimited
Each wine bottle was packed in a metal canister to prevent breakage.
Universities across Europe are involved in the Space Cargo Unlimited experiment, a Luxembourg startup.
Winemaking uses both yeast and bacteria and involves chemical processes, making the alcohol ideal for studying in space.
The space-aged wine will be compared with Bordeaux wine aged on Earth.
Whatever wine is left will go to those who helped pay for the research.
This is the first of six space missions planned by Space Cargo Unlimited over the next three years related to the future of agriculture in a changing world.
Nicolas Gaume, chief executive and co-founder of Space Cargo Unlimited, said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.”
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NASA is opening the space station to more business opportunities like this and revealed how eventually even private space tourism.
The Cygnus capsule arrived at ISS yesterday contains several commercial ventures.
Also on board is an oven for baking chocolate chip cookies and carbon fibre samples used by Lamborghini in its super cars.
Beer maker Budweiser has already blasted barley seeds to the ISS, with an eye to becoming the beverage of choice on Mars.
In 2015, a Japanese company known for its whiskey and other alcoholic drinks sent up samples, while scotch also visited space in another experiment.
This was not the first wine that has arrived in orbit.
A French astronaut took along a bottle of wine aboard shuttle Discovery in 1985, which remained corked in orbit.
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