Over the years, we’ve sent many cool things to space. From sex geckos to lettuce plants to salmonella, Earth’s orbit has seen its fair share of random human stuff. This week, the International Space Station’s newest object of interest — a 3-D printer — went into action.

The 3-D printer arrived a few weeks ago and has caused quite a bit of excitement in space and on Earth. Until now, if the ISS, a station orbiting Earth with astronauts on it, needed anything, it had to come on a rocket from Earth. And yet, try as they might, NASA simply could not pay Amazon enough to ship there. 

Now, if the astronauts need new tools or a part for a machine, it can be designed on Earth, sent to the space station, then printed there. This is remarkably more convenient than bussing everything from Earth and having to wait for the next shipment. 

This week, the printer marked its first out-of-this-world printing experience by making a faceplate for itself. This specific piece wasn’t especially notable, but the fact the printer is up and working was. 

A quick primer on 3-D printing: Much like the name suggests, a 3-D printer prints 3-D objects. It takes a design from a digital file and adds thin layers of a material until the final object is created. In other words, these things are pretty revolutionary. 

Not only is this printer absolutely huge news for the ISS, but it also has a larger application in space as well. Scientists are trying to figure out if they could use moon rocks as 3-D printer material, so if astronauts went to the moon they could create structures and appliances from the stuff below their feet. If we ever send missions to Mars or to an asteroid, the objects that the mission leaves with may not be the same as the ones they end up needing, explained printer project manager Niki Werkheiser in an interview with NPR. A 3-D printer could solve that. 

While this specific 3-D printer won’t be printing anything extraordinarily exciting, it’s pretty safe to say that it’s only a matter of time before 3-D printers become the future of achievement in space.