Astronauts will grow juicy dwarf tomatoes in space

Added on 05 December 2022

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Astronauts will grow juicy dwarf tomatoes in space

Among other spacefaring duties, growing plants up on the International Space Station (ISS) has been a longtime priority for NASA. The space agency has been off world gardening for years, in the hopes of eventually progressing it past a science experiment to legitimate agriculture.

Now, NASA has announced that ISS crew members have begun the next phase, Veg-05, in the ongoing gardening experiment by growing dwarf tomatoes.

"We are testing tomatoes, looking at the impacts of light spectrum on how well the crop grows, how delicious and nutritious the tomatoes are, and the microbial activity on the fruit and plants," said NASA Life Sciences project scientist Gioia Massa in an earlier statement. "We also are examining the overall effect of growing, tending, and eating crops on crew behavioral health. All of this will provide valuable data for future space exploration."

The tomatoes will be grown on the Vegetable Production System, or Veggie, the station's space garden that astronauts have used to grow some of their food.