SpaceX just launched disease-causing bacteria to the International Space Station

The Earth is seen in the background, a cylinder is seen falling toward it, and in the foreground there is shiny material connected to what seems to be an engine.

There’s a secret, extra member of Crew-11 traveling to the International Space Station right now: disease-causing bacteria.

Or, at least, such bacteria will be growing aboard the orbiting laboratory very soon. Scientists at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, in partnership with U.S.-based space tech company SpaceTango, have developed a study that will examine how microgravity affects the growth of certain bacterial species that cause diseases in humans. To pull it off, researchers will grow different strains of bacteria under microgravity, freeze that bacteria at -80 degrees Celsius and then return the samples to Earth to see how they’ve grown differently than the same bacteria grown on the home planet.