Tomatoes grown in space flying to Earth today

United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that tomatoes grown at the International Space Station (ISS) will return to Earth today (April 15) on SpaceX’s Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft. The event will be telecasted live.

“Samples from the Pick-and-Eat Salad-Crop Productivity, Nutritional Value, and Acceptability to Supplement the International Space Station Food System (Veg-05) experiment will be returning to Earth for analysis,” NASA said in a statement.

Astronauts grew dwarf tomatoes in International Space Station’s Veggie miniature greenhouse and performed three harvests at 90, 97, and 104 days. They froze tomatoes, water samples, and swabs of the growth hardware to examine the effects of light quality and fertilizer on fruit production, microbial safety, and nutritional value.

The ability to grow plants in space for fresh food and an improved crew living experience is important for future long-duration missions. NASA is hopeful that the hardware could be adapted for use on Earth to provide fresh produce for those without access to gardens and as horticultural therapy for older people and people with disabilities.

Dragon will carry back to Earth approximately 4,300 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments designed to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment.

Splashing down off the coast of Florida enables quick transportation of the experiments to NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, allowing researchers to collect data with minimal sample exposure to Earth’s gravity.