Life blooms in space

© NASA

Even if the zinnia wasn’t the first flower to be grown in space, it still represents a mile stone in food production in outer space

Brilio.net/en - NASA astronaut Scott Kelly revealed to the world the bright orange zinnias that had blossomed on the International Space Station on January 16th.

The space station commander shared the good news on Twitter with the tag Yes, there are other life forms in space! Added reason for celebration stems from the zinnias surviving a mould outbreak.

Photo: orange zinnia flower in NASA's Veggie chamber/NASA

According to Kelly, the zinnia is the first flower ever grown in space,but history will prove otherwise as astronaut Don Pettit grew several different types of plants on board the NASA station and labelled it a personal biology experiment. But without the help of the plant growth experiment Veggie, that helped foster the zinnias, Pettit was unable to use sophisticated materials such as pots. He was still able to successfully cultivate a sunflower, even if it looked somewhat different in space than it does on earth. His blossom is wilted-brown and has a few lopsided packed seeds. This is not quite normal, but then we are living on a frontier and things are different here, he said on his blog Diary of a Space Zucchini.

Photo:Don Pettit's sunflower/NASA

Yet according to the Guinness Book of World Records the first species of plant to flower in space was in 1982 on the then Soviet Unions Salyut 7 space station. The Soviet astronauts used a small greenhouse to cultivate orchids on the station, but it is worth noting that the plants were already buddying when they were delivered to the outpost, thus allowing them to blossom during the 40-day lifecycle.

Even if the zinnia wasnt the first flower to be grown in space, it still represents a mile stone in food production in outer space. The Veggie chamber, which was first used to grow lettuce, was originally developed to test food production and NASA ultimately hopes that the astronauts on long-term deep space missions will be able to obtain fresh-grown vegetables. Not only do the naturally grown vegetables provide health benefits, gardening and harvesting the vegetables also provides psychological benefits and assists in atmospheric recycling.

(Reported by: Ivana Lucic)