The International Space Station bid adieu Tuesday to 12 bottles of Bordeaux French wine and hundreds of fragments of grapes that spent a year circling the world in the name of science.
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule was removed with the wine and grapes – and thousands of pounds of gear and other research, including mice – and was aimed at a Wednesday night shower in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa.
They focused on the Atlantic Ocean, but bad weather moved when they reached the other side of Florida.
SpaceX supply ships had previously parachuted into the Pacific Ocean.
Carefully packaged wine – each bottle nestled inside a steel cylinder to prevent breakage – was kept on board the orbiting laboratory.
Space Cargo Unlimited, a Luxembourg start-up company behind the tests, wanted the wine to age for a whole year up there.
None of the bottles will be opened until the end of February. That’s when the company opened a bottle or two for wine tasting outside this world in Bordeaux with some of France’s leading connoisseurs and experts.
Months of chemical testing come. Researchers are desperate to see how the location of the sediment and the bubbles changed.
Agricultural science is the main focus, emphasizes Nicolas Gaume, the company ‘s chief executive and co – founder, although he admits it will be fun to get a taste of the wine. He will be among the lucky few to take a sip.
“Our aim is to address the solution of tomorrow’s agriculture that is both organic and healthy and capable of feeding humanity, and we believe that the key is in place,” said Mr. Gaume from Bordeaux.
With climate change, Mr Gaume said agricultural products such as grain need to adapt to harsher conditions.
Through a series of space experiments, Space Cargo Unlimited hopes to learn what has been learned by stressing the plants in weight loss and turning that into stronger and more stable plants on Earth.
There is another advantage. Mr. Gaume expects future explorers to be on the moon and Mars will want to enjoy some of Earth’s pleasures.
“Being a Frenchman is part of the life of getting good food and good wine,” he told The Associated Press.
Mr Gaume said private investors had helped fund the trials. He declined to give the cost of the project.
The wine went on a trip to the space station in November 2019 aboard the supply ship Northrop Grumman.
The 320 Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapefruits, known as cans in the grape growing industry, were launched by SpaceX in March last year.
SpaceX is the only spacecraft capable of returning space station tests and other items.
The other cargo capsules are filled with debris and burned up as they recirculate the Earth’s atmosphere.