NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Two young Indian-American aerospace researchers are preparing to make history in 2027 by leading the first dedicated spaceflight to study menstruation in microgravity, addressing a surprisingly persistent gap in human spaceflight research.
Manju Bangalore, 28, and Priya Abiram, 22, will lead Operation Period-01 (OP-01), a suborbital research mission scheduled to fly aboard Virgin Galactic. The two are also expected to become among the youngest South Asian women to travel to space.
The mission, developed through nonprofit Operation Period’s Redshift Lab, will conduct what organizers describe as the first direct, quantitative research into menstrual fluid dynamics in space.
A suborbital flight is a short-duration spaceflight that reaches space but does not orbit Earth.
Despite more than 100 women having traveled to space, menstruation has never been directly and quantitatively studied in microgravity, according to Operation Period and Virgin Galactic. Existing knowledge has largely come from observations and reports by astronauts rather than controlled measurements.
“Right now, the data says that menstruation is generally safe to do in space, but it’s limited data, and it’s all qualitative,” Bangalore told Fast Company. “So, we are pursuing the first quantitative study of menstruation in space.”
The researchers plan to use a fluid that mimics the properties of menstrual blood to examine how it flows in microgravity and how menstrual products absorb it. The findings could eventually help scientists better understand reproductive health in space and assist mission planners preparing for longer journeys to destinations such as the Moon and Mars.
The research could also have implications on Earth, particularly in improving the understanding and testing of menstrual products and advancing reproductive-health research.
Bangalore, the founder and executive director of Operation Period, grew up in Oregon as the daughter of immigrants from India. A physicist and astronautical engineer, she holds bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California.
She has worked at NASA’s Marshall and Johnson Space Centers on propulsion systems and spacecraft interfaces and previously contributed to science policy in the Obama White House. She has also conducted menstrual research during parabolic flights that create brief periods of microgravity.
Bangalore founded Operation Period in 2015 to address menstrual inequity and has since expanded the nonprofit’s work into scientific research.
Abiram is an aerospace engineer, pilot and astronaut-in-training who serves as director of research at Operation Period’s Redshift Lab. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in aerospace engineering from Cornell University. Her experience includes work involving astronaut life-support and spacecraft systems at NASA, Blue Origin, Vast and Boeing.
The mission comes more than four decades after Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. A now-famous episode from preparations for Ride’s flight involved NASA engineers asking whether 100 tampons would be sufficient for her six-day mission — an example frequently cited to illustrate how little early space programs understood about women’s needs.
While women have since become an integral part of human spaceflight, menstrual health has remained relatively understudied. Astronauts may also choose to suppress menstruation through hormonal contraception during missions. Researchers behind OP-01 say collecting quantitative data could provide astronauts with better-informed choices and help planners determine supplies and medical needs for increasingly long missions.
“This mission is about more than a scientific first, it’s about correcting a fundamental design gap,” Bangalore said when the mission was announced. “Human spaceflight has historically been built around a narrow definition of the human body.”
Abiram said the research could have benefits well beyond spaceflight.
“By studying menstruation in microgravity, we have the opportunity to potentially unlock insights for astronauts, as well as help inform future biomedical research on Earth,” she said.
The OP-01 flight is scheduled for sometime in 2027, although a specific launch date has not yet been announced. Virgin Galactic and Operation Period said additional details about the research payload, collaborators and mission timeline will be released in the coming months.
Photo credit: Virgin Galactic.
