Photos: Diary of a Space Zucchini

Zucchini Flower Aboard the ISS

A zucchini sprout begins to grow aboard the International Space Station. From Don Pettit's blog: "I am zucchini — and I am in space." Image released April 3, 2012.

Zucchini Plant with Four Leaves Aboard the ISS

A zucchini sprout grows with four leaves aboard the International Space Station. Image released April 3, 2012.

Zucchini Plant Floats Aboard the ISS

A zucchini plant floats aboard the International Space Station. From Don Pettit's blog: "This bag is mostly filled with air and only has a small amount of water neatly tucked in the corners from the action of capillary forces in weightlessness. This is aeroponics, a rather new method for raising plants without soil and without large volumes of water." Image released April 3, 2012.

Zucchini Sprouts Aboard the ISS

Astronaut Don Pettit described his zucchini growing experiment aboard the ISS in his blog. He writes: "We have two new crewmates, 'Sunflower' and 'Broccoli'. Sunflower has a long stem for the size of his leaves. He is standing tall. Broccoli is small and weak. His sprout is so small that without the normal gravitational signals, surface tension forces keep his cotyledons from breaking free from the damp pigmat medium. Effectively, his first two leaves are glued down to a wet layer. Within a day or two mold takes over and the poor sprout dies. It grieves me to see them die. Life can be tough on the frontier." Image released April 6, 2012.

Small Broccoli Sprout Growing Aboard the ISS

The space station's zucchini got a friend in the form of this broccoli plant. Image released April 6, 2012.

Zucchini's Friend, Broccoli

A broccoli sprout grows larger aboard the International Space Station. Image released April 6, 2012.