Cool, calm and collected for return to Earth. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronaut Kayla Barron transfer items from the International Space Station’s Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer (MELFI) to polar units for their journey on a cargo Dragon spacecraft.

Kept cool with ice bricks and double cold bags, these samples were retrieved following the spacecraft’s splashdown off the coast of Florida and transported by helicopter to researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The rapid return of such samples minimises the effects of gravity, allowing researchers to make additional observations and analyses of their experiments before conducting more in-depth analysis at their home labs.

The SpaceX cargo Dragon that returned these samples arrived at the Station on 22 December 2021 packed with fresh science and supplies. It departed Sunday 23 January and splashed down on Monday 24 January 2022.

Matthias is currently undertaking his first space mission known as Cosmic Kiss. This ESA mission will see him spend around six months living and working in orbit where he will support over 35 European experiments and many more international experiments. Find out more about Matthias and the Cosmic Kiss mission on the ESA mission webpage.

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