SpaceX Inspiration4 Dragon Capsule Metagenomic and Metatranscriptomic Microbial Swabs

The SpaceX Inspiration4 mission was a 3-day mission with four private astronauts to low Earth orbit that occurred in September 2021. The crew collected biospecimen samples before, during, and after flight. One of these biospecimen collections included microbial swabs collected from nine surfaces in the Dragon capsule (execute button, G-meter button, control touch screen - left, control touch screen - right, side hatch mobility aid, lid of waste locker, seat 2, commode panel, viewing dome) and one open air control. Swabs were collected twice during flight (flight day 2 (FD2), and flight day 3 (FD3)) and twice pre-flight in the crew training capsule in Hawthorne, CA (L-92, L-44). Swabs were stored in 400uL of Zymo Research DNA/RNA Shield at 4C until nucleic acid extraction. DNA and RNA were extracted from the same swab to generate metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiles.

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  "026:00"
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  "026:000"
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  "Biological and Physical Sciences"
]