NASA Unwraps a Special Delivery From the International Space Station
The contents of this box are the first of their kind made in space.
![The unboxing of the first items made in space with a 3D printer can be seen on NASA's website.](https://s.abcnews.com/images/Technology/pd_nasa_space_3d_printer_kb_150407_16x9_992.jpg?w=1600)
— -- It's a special delivery that is the first of its kind.
NASA researchers unboxed the special cargo that included the first-ever 3-D printed tools created at the International Space Station.
Protected by plastic bags, the 21 tools were carefully removed from a box by Quincy Bean, the principal investigator for NASA's 3-D printer, including the first-ever space-created wrench.
The 3-D printer was installed in November 2014 with the goal of testing it as an on-demand solution for astronauts who want to print parts and tools without waiting on a cargo resupply mission.
![PHOTO: NASA’s 3-D printer on the International Space Station built a wrench. The wrench and other parts have been returned to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.](https://s.abcnews.com/images/Technology/pd_nasa_3d_printer_2_kb_150407_4x3_992.jpg)
The parts were sent back in February when the SpaceX Dragon returned to Earth. The next step will be testing, as analysts compare the space-printed parts to a control set that were printed on Earth last year to see if there are any differences.
In the future, NASA said it believes the 3-D printing capabilities will come in handy for astronauts traveling into deep space, including a potential future mission to Mars.