Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Cape Canaveral, Florida – 18th January 2024.
The NanoProtection experiment (also known as PROMETEO-2), funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), has been successfully launched!
PROMETEO-2 focuses on studying oxidative stress caused by the exposure of the human body to microgravity and cosmic radiation, conditions on Earth associated with pathologies such as Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
After a launch scrub on Jan. 17th, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with its Crew Dragon capsule hosting 4 crew members lifted off from pad LC-39A during Axiom Space’s Ax-3 Mission at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.The Kayser Italia team (Elisa Carrubba, Michele Balsamo, Andrea Tenaglia, Matteo Lampredi) did work in strict collaboration for several days with the science team from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), coordinated by Prof. Gianni Ciofani and Prof. Giada Graziana Genchi, to prepare the 12 Experiment Units (EU) hosting the biological samples of the experiment. Once the Crew Dragon will have reached the ISS (36 hours from lift off), the Experiment Units will be placed into the Kubik incubator for 4 days and then transferred to the MELFI fridge to be kept at -80°C. The Experiment Units will be returned to Earth with SpX-30 in early Spring 2024 and immediately transferred to the IIT’s premises where the Kayser Italia team will perform the de-integration and the science team the samples processing.
