Uganda's New Satellite Contains Equipment to 3D Print Human Tissue in Orbit

Uganda has become a spacefaring nation thanks to the help of NASA and Japan.

According to the Uganda-based Nile Post, the satellite launched out of NASA's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport facility in Virginia on November 7 will provide important agricultural and security monitoring features for the developing nation.

The tissues printed on PearlAfricaSat-1 will be used in research into the effects microgravity has on ovary function.

3D printing human tissues and organs is not easy to do on Earth because it requires complex scaffolding to make the intricate tissue structures of human parts.

The need for scaffolding is eliminated by the weight of space.

This isn't the first time bioprinting equipment has been sent into the microgravity of Earth's orbit, it was Russia who sent bioprinting machinery up to the International Space Station and began printing human tissue at the end of 2021.

PearlAfricaSat-1 will be stored on the International Space Station for a short time before being sent into space.

Synthetic humanism is the first time humans have been injected with lab-grown blood.