NASA astronaut celebrates 50th birthday with ice cream on the ISS

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur celebrated her 50th birthday with ice cream delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) on a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.

SpaceX’s latest cargo delivery, the 23rd made by Elon Musk‘s firm in less than a decade, completed an automated docking at 10:30 EDT (15:30 BST) on Monday.

The arrival was overseen by McArthur on her 50th birthday, prompting her to say ‘no one’s ever sent me a spaceship for my birthday before.’

As well as a range of experiments, including an ant farm project overseen by the Girl Scouts, the shipment including ice cream, cake and candles for McArthur.  

‘What a great birthday dinner with my Expedition 65 crew mates,’ the astronaut said.

‘My #SpaceBrothers went all out: quesadillas and tortilla-pizzas with real cheese! Cookie decorating! Cake with chocolate “candles”! We haven’t unpacked the ice cream yet, so I guess that means a 2nd party?

‘I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of good wishes from family, friends, and space fans around the world. I might be 50 but I still feel like one lucky girl.’

McArthur is one of seven astronauts currently living on the laboratory orbiting 260 miles above the Earth, arriving at the Station in April as part of Expedition 65.

She launched for the ISS on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour, with fellow NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, ESA’s Tomas Pesquet and JAXA’s Akihiko Hoshide. 

A veteran of space travel, she is known as the last person to be hands on with the Hubble Space Telescope via the Canadarm connected to the Space Shuttle. 

Launched Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the SpaceX capsule also contained ants, lemons, cherry tomatoes, avocados and a human-scale robotic arm.

The ants heading for the station were sent up by the Girl Scouts, along with brine shrimp and plants to act as test subjects.

The Girl Scout project started with the ‘Making Space for Girls’ initiative that launched a challenge in 2020 to find experiments to send to the station.

Each of the three experiments will have a linked control experiment on the Earth and will allow the girls to see growth differences on Earth and in orbit. 

Other experiments heading for the station include one by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists, who are flying up seeds from mouse-ear cress, a small flowering weed used in genetic research. 

Samples of concrete, solar cells and other materials will also be subjected to the near-weightless environment of the orbital platform.

A Japanese start-up is sending an experimental robotic arm to the station, that will attempt to screw items together and perform mundane chores.

The first tests will be done inside the space station, but future models of Gitai Inc.’s robot will venture out into the vacuum of space to practice satellite and other repair jobs, said chief technology officer Toyotaka Kozuki.

As early as 2025, a squad of these arms could help build lunar bases and mine the moon for precious resources, he added.

‘Results could support development of robotic labour to support crew activities and tasks, as well as inform servicing, assembly, and manufacturing tasks while in orbit,’ NASA said in a statement.

‘Robotic support could lower costs and improve crew safety by having robots take on tasks that could expose crew members to hazards. 

‘The technology also has applications in extreme and potentially dangerous environments on Earth, including disaster relief, deep-sea excavation, and servicing nuclear power plants.’   

The robot arms could also one day aid humans in long-duration space flights, such as the six-to-nine months it will take to get to Mars in the 2030s.

As well as a robot arm, astronauts will be working with an experiment to study the effects of microgravity and space radiation on bone tissue growth. 

This is called the REducing Arthritis Dependent Inflammation First Phase (READI FP) experiment.

It will test whether bioactive metabolites, which include substances such as antioxidants formed when food is broken down, might protect bones during spaceflight.

‘This insight also could contribute to prevention and treatment of bone loss on Earth, particularly in post-menopausal women,’ NASA explained.

The ISS has been used as an orbital laboratory for more than 20 years, with regular shipments going between the Earth and the station.

In recent years NASA has turned to the likes of SpaceX, Northrup Grumman and Boeing to provide cargo deliveries. 

As well as treats for the crew and experiments, shipments include upgrades to the station itself.

These upgrades include entirely new modules, as well as solar panels and smaller structural upgrades. 

On September 3, Russian astronauts will venture into the vacuum of space to outfit a new laboratory module that arrived in July.

Then a Japanese-French spacewalking duo of Tomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide will step out to install a bracket for a new solar panel – due to arrive in 2022. 

That NASA-directed spacewalk should have occurred last week, but was postponed after US spacewalker, Mark Vande Hei, suffered a pinched nerve in his neck. 

Station managers opted to replace him with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.