USD alum says hello from space

As a flight engineer and laboratory technician, Dominick and his colleagues conduct scientific experiments, including 3D printing of cardiac tissues, go out on spacewalks and float through the station testing out new technologies.

Zoom in: The main experiment, however, involves the astronauts themselves, Dominick said.

• For seven hours a day, he's monitored closely via ultrasounds and measurements of everything from his eyeballs to blood pressure.
• "The more people we can get into space, the bigger the sample size we can get, so we can understand what happens to humans [and their bodies] when they go to space," he told USD during an in-flight interview last week.

The big picture: This mission will inform NASA's plans to explore more of the Moon than ever before, build sustained human presence on the lunar surface and help the agency prepare for the human exploration of Mars.

Read more: San Diego's Moon mission connection