Flowers Planted In International Space Station

Growing plants in space is an important step as NASA preps its mission to Mars in the 2030s.

Flickr photo: George Hatcher

January 1, 2016, will bring a fresh start to humanity, and possibly fresh flowers aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, on Monday, planted Zinnia seeds in the Veggie plant growth system. Lindgren will feed the plants and monitor the red, blue and green LED lighting system for 60 days – twice the amount of time a recent crop of romaine lettuce took to grow on the ISS.

Remember: Romaine Calm: Astronauts Eat First Lettuce Grown In Space

“Growing a flowering crop is more challenging than growing a vegetative crop such as lettuce,” Gioia Massa, NASA Kennedy Space Center payload scientist for Veggie, said in a prepared statement. “Lighting and other environmental parameters are more critical.”

The seeds were delivered to the ISS on the SpaceX resupply mission in April 2014. Growing plants in space is an important step as NASA preps its mission to Mars in the 2030s.

Read: Mars Mission: Space Launch System Approaches Final Review Hurdle

“Growing the Zinnia plants will help advance our knowledge of how plants flower in the Veggie growth system, and will enable fruiting plants like tomatoes to be grown and eaten in space using Veggie as the in-orbit garden,” Trent Smith, Veggie program manager at Kennedy, said in a prepared statement.

NASA also plans on growing tomatoes on the ISS by 2017.

Flowers could be blooming on @Space_Station soon! Learn why @astro_kjellplanted them: https://t.co/lyfwbnvch1 https://t.co/zmmEdKg7Qs

— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) November 16, 2015

Source: http://www.talkradionews.com/world-news/2015/11/16/flowers-planted-on-international-space-station.html