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Emirati Astronaut Conducts 3D-Printing Experiment In Space
The experiment aims to assess the viability of 3D-printed knee cartilage tissue for treating injuries in remote areas on Earth and while in space.
Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and his colleague from NASA, Frank Rubio, are currently conducting experiments on the International Space Station on the viability of 3D-printed knee cartilage tissue.
The 3D printing lab, known as The BioFabrication Facility, has been built to evaluate whether low to zero-gravity conditions can improve printing quality compared to production on Earth, while examining the feasibility of 3D-printed cartilage tissue for fixing injuries in remote conditions, including in space.
Using cutting-edge technology, NASA hopes to eventually alleviate musculoskeletal injuries. “Crew members who experience musculoskeletal injuries on future deep space missions may benefit from the capability to bioprint tissue such as knee cartilage to promote recovery,” the space agency said in a recent press release.
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During the six-month mission, a total of 250 research experiments will be conducted, and Dr. Al Neyadi, who arrived recently onboard the ISS, has already undertaken studies on human heart tissue and served as a test subject for a sleep research program.
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Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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