Lab-grown food heads to space in breakthrough experiment

A European Space Agency (ESA) mission has launched an experiment into orbit to test the viability of producing lab-grown food in space.

The initiative aims to reduce the cost of feeding astronauts, which currently stands at up to £20,000 per day, and to support future long-duration space missions.

The project involves Bedford-based company Frontier Space in collaboration with Imperial College London. A small bioreactor carrying genetically engineered yeast cells was sent aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The payload, housed in a cube satellite aboard Europe's first commercial returnable spacecraft, Phoenix, will orbit the Earth for three hours before splashing down off the coast of Portugal for recovery and analysis.

The experiment is part of a broader plan to eventually develop food production systems for use on the International Space Station and future missions to the Moon and Mars.

According to project leader Dr Aqeel Shamsul, lab-based food manufacturing in space could drastically reduce dependence on Earth-based supply missions.

Using precision fermentation, the yeast is engineered to produce food ingredients such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Once returned, data from the experiment will help scientists develop a more advanced bioreactor for future missions.

While similar technologies have been used on Earth—lab-grown chicken is approved for sale in the US and Singapore—this is the first known test of such a system in microgravity conditions.

Imperial College’s culinary designer, Jakub Radzikowski, is also developing recipes using analogous ingredients from fungi, with the aim of one day producing culturally familiar meals for astronauts.

Britain’s first astronaut, Dr Helen Sharman, praised the concept, noting its potential to improve nutrition and morale on long-duration spaceflights.

Researchers believe lab-grown food could eventually provide a more sustainable and health-conscious alternative for space exploration.