First Ever Flower Grown on the International Space Station

The first ever flower may have been grown in space. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has tweeted images of a flower that's finally opened on the International Space Station.

The flower itself is an orange zinnia flower, and is part of an experiment to see how well plants can grow in space, especially considering the lack of gravity in orbit. This is particularly important when considering how best to grow plants for food in space-something that's seriously being considering as long-term space missions are planned for the future.

Of course, growing the zinnia flower wasn't all that easy. Kelly noted that the plants' condition started to wither amid excessive humidity and limited air flow. In fact, he had to make some alteration to the way the plant was taken care of, including changing when to water the plant. While the astronauts successfully grew lettuce, the flower was more sensitive to environmental parameters.

While two of the zinnia plants died, two continued to thrive. And finally on Jan. 8, Scott Kelly posted a picture of tiny buds beginning to sprout on the plants.

These latest efforts may help researchers grow plants in space in the future. This could be huge when it comes to longer space missions where fresh food will be important.

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