Astronaut nurses zinnia to full bloom after mold invasion

Astronauts in space have managed to grow the first ever flower in zero gravity. Kelly has been aboard since March 2015 and has been sharing several images of the earth from space.

Gioia Massa, a scientist working on the Veggie project, said the plants grown so far are not ideal but have helped researchers on Earth understand better how they grow in conditions of microgravity. USA astronaut Scott Kelly recently tweeted a photo of one of the flowers, giving it the hashtag #spaceflower.

In the two months since, the ISS astronauts tended to the plant, encountering a range of issues from too much water to a mold issue, to a ventilation fan that dried the plants too much.

The zinnias began to exhibit telltale signs of plant stress-water droplets on the leaf edges and curling leaves-two weeks into their growth period.

But some have argued that a sunflower was actually the first flower to grow in space. Furthermore, these growing plants are lit by LED lights and fertilized through an automatic release.

Trent Smith, Veggie project manager, said in a NASA blog post: “The zinnia plant is very different from lettuce…” The crew chose to increase the air flow in the plant growth chamber, which they thought would fix the problems, but they were derailed thanks to an unexpected spacewalk in December. Whitmire explains that plants can “enhance long-duration missions” that are conducted in isolation.

On Sunday, Kelly proudly shared the new on Twitter saying, “Yes, there are other life forms in space!” and “First ever flower grown in space makes its debut!” Being able to grow food en route to Mars will make the crew more self-sufficient and lower the cost of a mission as less food needs to be launched into orbit.

Aside from being a potential food source, NASA said growing plants possess psychological benefits against feeling of isolation and depression among the astronauts.

‘It is more sensitive to environmental parameters and light characteristics. NASA has plans to grow tomatoes on ISS in 2018, but until then, astronauts will continue doing their experiments with other crops in space.