#SpaceFlower out in the sun for the first time! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/Cghu9XGv1J
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 17, 2016
This weekend, the astronauts up on the International Space Station reached a major milestone: they grew the first flower in space. More specifically, they grew a firey zinnia bloom. It’s beautiful, really, and the firey orange really contrasts pretty well with the blue of the Earth behind it. That’s a sentence I just typed. This is the future. Oh boy.
Before someone says something: yes, plants have been grown up in space before. As I said, this is the first flower grown in space. As Colossal’s Christopher Jobson points out, “Plants like lettuce have aready been grown and eaten aboard the ISS.” This flower is part of the VEG-01 project, which can be considered the next step in space agriculture. They’re trying to grow more complex plants, and this flower represents a pretty great sign of success.
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