Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have already harvested a crop of “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce on the orbital laboratory. Now they are all set to witness flowers blooming in space. NASA announced that astronaut Kjell Lindgren had activated the “Veggie” plant growth system along with its rooting “pillows” containing Zinnia seeds aboard the ISS on Monday.
Growing flowering crops is far more challenging
Zinnia belongs to the sunflower tribe in the daisy family. For the first time in history, a flowering crop will be grown on the space station, NASA said in a statement. Zinnia’s growth in the orbiting laboratory will provide information about whether other flowering plants could also be grown in space. Developed by Orbital Technologies Corp, the Veggie system, along with one set of Zinnias and two sets of pillows containing romaine seeds, was sent to the space station by a SpaceX resupply mission in April 2014.