Malta’s science sphere has just reached a brand-new milestone.

Only yesterday, the country’s first-ever space project – dubbed Project Maleth – arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after being launched onboard a SpaceX rocket.

The project was originally slated for launch on 28th August; however, this was pushed back by a day due to poor weather.

In spite of this, the launch went swimmingly!

Project Maleth, led by Professor Joseph Borg from the University of Malta’s Department of Applied Biomedical Science, is looking to make a couple of breakthroughs in the treatment of diabetes.

Therefore, this amazing initiative saw Profs. Borg and his team place a number of biomedical samples from diabetes patients inside a biocube, which was in turn placed onboard the SpaceX rocket and launched into space.

Whilst the biocube’s aboard the ISS, Profs. Borg will be receiving valuable data about the samples’ condition which could then help him and his team make some important discoveries. Pretty cool, right?

Christina Gatt, a biomedical scientist who’s part of this experiment, took to social media to celebrate the launch and give some insight into what Project Maleth aims to achieve.

“The harsh environment of space, i.e. microgravity and radiation, would cause genetic changes in the micriobiome of these tissues,” she explained.

“These changes might help us to discover new biomarkers that could potentially be targeted for better management and treatment of these ulcers,” she wrote.

The biocube is now expected to remain on the ISS for around 40 to 50 days, after which point it will be sent back to Earth and land in the Atlantic Ocean.

Talk about making a splash!