After poor weather on Saturday 28 August 2021 forced SpaceX CRS23 mission managers to scrub Malta’s long-anticipated planned launch of the Falcon 9 Rocket from Florida, Space 0MIX proudly sent Malta’s first-ever mission for Project Maleth to the International Space Station.

Project Maleth, being led by Prof. Joseph Borg from the Department of Applied Biomedical Science, sentscientific data to the International Space Station with the aim of ushering Maltese science into a new era of space diplomacy. A biocube containing biomedical samples from Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients from Malta and sent to the International Space Station so experiments can be carried out using this valuable material and data analysis can then shed more light on important discoveries made. These were collected by doctoral student Christine Gatt.

Project Maleth's SpaceOMIX experiment will now remain on board the ISS in orbit for around 40 to 50 days. It will then start its way back by re-entry of the dragon capsule and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean. 

This international effort was made possible thanks to the participation of many organisations and individuals, including Malta’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the University’s Research Trust – RIDT, Arkafort, Evolve Ltd, Zaar Crowdfunding, the Malta Council for Science and Technology, and the Malta Association of Biomedical Scientists.

“Today marks a step to a journey that has no end but excitement, education and fun”, wrote the Space 0MIX Medical Research Centre on a dedicated Facebook Post.

If you missed the livestream of the launch, you can follow it again in the below video:

 More information about this mission can be found on Newspoint.