Zinnia: The first flower ever grown in space
Washington, Jan 18: For the first time ever an astronaut has achieved success in blooming a flower in the space. This is the first time a flowering crop has grown on the orbiting laboratory.
American astronaut Scott Kelly, who has been working since March 2015 on the space laboratory took Twitter to announce the other forms of life on space on Saturday.
"First ever flower grown in space makes its debut," tweeted astronaut Scott Kelly.
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren activated the Veggie plant growth system and its rooting "pillows" containing Zinnia seeds on the space station in November last year.
Growing Zinnias in orbit will help provide precursory information about other flowering plants that could be grown in space.
During the growth cycle, the LED lights were kept on for 10 hours and off for 14 hours in order to stimulate the plants to flower.
NASA to grow flowers in space for first time
Veggie, along with two sets of pillows containing romaine seeds and one set of zinnias, was delivered to the station by SpaceX on the third cargo resupply mission in April 2014.
#SpaceFlower
out
in
the
sun
for
the
first
time!
#YearInSpace
pic.twitter.com/Cghu9XGv1J
—
Scott
Kelly
(@StationCDRKelly)
January
17,
2016
How
does
your
garden
grow?
Here's
how
my
#spaceflower
came
to
bloom:
https://t.co/DbmTqqJopf
#YearInSpace
pic.twitter.com/kl1bxI96PJ
—
Scott
Kelly
(@StationCDRKelly)
January
16,
2016
Yes,
there
are
other
life
forms
in
space!
#SpaceFlower
#YearInSpace
pic.twitter.com/BJFWvQXmBB
—
Scott
Kelly
(@StationCDRKelly)
January
16,
2016
First
ever
flower
grown
in
space
makes
its
debut!
#SpaceFlower
#zinnia
#YearInSpace
pic.twitter.com/2uGYvwtLKr
—
Scott
Kelly
(@StationCDRKelly)
January
16,
2016
OneIndia News