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International Space Station Astronauts Look Forward To Today's First Taste Of Space Harvest

This article is more than 8 years old.

International Space Station astronauts will taste for the first time today food that's been planted, grown and harvested in space, NASA announced on Friday. The astronauts were looking forward to eating a red romaine lettuce called “Outredgeous”, grown using a special zero gravity plant growth system called "Veggie" that was jointly-developed by NASA and Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC).

The event will be aired on NASA TV during today's live coverage of a six-hour spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station that begins at 9:45 a.m. EDT.

The Veggie technology

The Veggie plant growth system was developed from units created by Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) under an SBIR award from NASA. The Veggie system work is part of ORBITEC's BioProducts and BioProduction Systems Group, and was "developed through its twenty years of research in environmental control and life-support systems for NASA." The system has been further developed during NASA tests aboard the International Space Station. The technology utilizes, among other space-adaptive techniques, growing “pillows” that provide the seeds with essential nutrients. The Veggie system also utilizes red, blue and green LED grow lights. Although the red and blue light waves are most energy-efficient, the green lights were added to improve the plants’ appearance. Using LED lights for space gardening is an idea that dates back to the early 1990s, according to Dr. Ray Wheeler, lead for Advanced Life Support activities in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Office at Kennedy Space Center.

According to ORBITEC’s Business Development Director Paul Zamprelli, Veggie is the Space Station’s first open-air garden to grow food. A first crop of Veggie-grown space lettuce (also called Veg-01) was delivered to the ISS in 2014 via the Dragon capsule on the SpaceX-3 and grown by Expedition 39’s astronauts. That harvest underwent and passed food safety analysis in October that year. The second Veg-01 plant pillows containing lettuce seeds were activated by Astronaut Kelly on July 8 and grew for 33 days between activation and harvest.

The Veggie experiments are reported to be an essential component of NASA’s Journey to Mars, providing a sustainable food supplement for long-duration missions. Testing the psychological benefits of recreational gardening is also a key research component of the Veggie gardening experiments.

Outredgeous is an organic non-GMO lettuce variety that is part of the Open Source Seed Initiative.