The bacteria that wont wake up found in spacecraft cleanrooms

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 09, 2025

Researchers have characterized a bacterium from spacecraft assembly cleanrooms that can enter an extreme dormant state, allowing it to persist where contamination controls are designed to remove nearly all life. The study centers on Tersicoccus phoenicis, a microbe detected in high-grade cleanrooms used by NASA and the European Space Agency to prepare spacecraft hardware.

The team found th