Zucchini Sprouts in a Bag
A zucchini sprout grows larger aboard the International Space Station. Image released April 6, 2012.
Small Zucchini Sprout
A zucchini sprout begins to grow aboard the International Space Station. Image released April 6, 2012.
Baby Zucchini Sprouts
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.
Dwarf Wheat on Mir
This dwarf wheat was grown in space aboard the Mir space station.
Russia's Space Plant Tests
Soyuz 5 Commander Sergei Zalyotin examines plants grown in the Lada growth chamber located in the Zvezda Service Module on the International Space Station. Since its inception, the Lada chamber has been used to repeatedly harvest fast-growing plants such as peas, mizuna (a Russian leafy vegetable), wheat, peppers and rice. Image
Plant Seedling Seed Cassettes
The Experiment Container with Plant Seedling Seed Cassettes (seedlings, inset lower right) is an example of the samples returning aboard the SpaceX Dragon vehicle for ground analysis.
Veggie Growing Experiment, Space Station
A prototype version of Veggie with red romaine lettuce plants growing inside of it.
Inside the Vegetable Production System (Veggie)
The Veggie experiment is used to grow lettuce on the International Space Station.
Advanced Biological Research System
The Advanced Biological Research System spaceflight hardware showing the Petri plates with plants.
Astronaut Harvest
Astronaut Jeff Williams "harvests" an Arabidopsis plant on the International Space Station.