A SpaceX Dragon capsule succesfully docked with the International Space Station (Nasa)

Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX has a lucrative contract to deliver resupply missions to the astronauts orbiting above us in the International Space Station (ISS).

The next trip is scheduled for March 2020 and it will be carrying some interesting cargo.

Along with the usual provisions, the SpaceX Dragon capsule will also be bringing the astronauts coffee and cannabis.

But rather than help the astronauts get even higher, it’s actually for scientific reasons. A biotech company called Front Range Biosciences has partnered with the University of Colorado to launch over 480 plant cell cultures up to the space station.




These include coffee variants and hemp – a variety of marijuana – to see if expose to zero gravity will mutate the plants. They will be aboard an incubator designed for space.

‘This is the first time anyone is researching the effects of microgravity and spaceflight on hemp and coffee cell cultures,’ Jonathan Vaught, co-founder and CEO of Front Range Biosciences, said in a statement.

Hemp is a strain of the cannabis plant but it can’t get you high (AP Photo/Morgan Smith, File)

‘There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to earth and if there are new commercial applications.’

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for the astronauts, hemp can’t get you stoned because it lacks the sufficient quantities of THC, the chemical that gets you high.

Remember when Elon smoked weed? (YouTube)

Elon Musk is no stranger to the effects of the herb, though. The billionaire sparked an online storm when he smoked weed live on air as part of a podcast from shock jock Joe Rogan.