It’s “Plan Wine From Outer Space.”
On Saturday, a startup shipped a dozen bottles of fine French wine to the International Space Station, the Associated Press reports. The vino, individually bottled in metal canisters to prevent breakage, was launched from Virginia and arrived in outer space on Monday.
The wine will spend a year in orbit before being brought back to Earth and astronauts won’t get to enjoy a single drop, as the purpose of its journey is not no-gravity inebriation, but science. Researchers will study the impact of space radiation and weightlessness on the wine’s aging process.
Luxembourg-based startup Space Cargo Unlimited hopes to develop new flavors based on the project’s findings. Universities in Bordeaux and Bavaria are also taking part in the company’s “once-in-a-lifetime adventure,” CEO and co-founder Nicolas Gaume said in a statement.
Upon returning to Earth, the space-aged wine will be compared to a Bordeaux aged here, the Independent reports. A company spokeswoman told the outlet that any leftovers will be poured for the people who funded the research.
The space capsule used to ship the wine also contained a small electric oven, so astronauts can finally bake the chocolate chip cookie dough they already have up there.
Space Cargo has five other space missions planned for the next three years all with aims to study out-of-orbit agriculture but this isn’t the first time wine has wound up in space. In 1985, a French astronaut took a bottle aboard the shuttle Discovery. The bottle, however, remained corked while in orbit.
In other food and beverage space firsts this year, Israeli and Russian scientists grew “Frankenstein” meat aboard the International Space Station, and NASA is looking to grow peppers beyond Earth’s bounds.
Ref;nypost.com