Astronauts Harvest First Chilli Peppers on International Space Station, Make Tacos With Them
Astronauts aboard ISS harvested the chilli peppers as part of Plant Habitat-04 study.
HIGHLIGHTS
Astronauts harvested chilli peppers as part...
more... of a study
Twitter users were in awe of the space-grown food
Astronaut Megan McArthur shared photos of the chilli peppers on Twitter
NASA's International Space Station (ISS) saw its first harvest of crops on October 29. The agency shared a photo on Twitter and mentioned that the station's first harvest was chilli peppers. This harvest was a part of an ISS experiment, called Plant Habitat-04 study. Astronaut Megan McArthur, who is stationed at the ISS, posted another update about this feat. The crew onboard relished some tacos, thanks to the chilli peppers that they harvested at the station. McArthur tweeted, "Friday Feasting. After the harvest, we got to taste red and green chile. Then we filled out surveys (got to have the data). Finally, I made my best space tacos yet: fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes and artichokes, and hatch chile."
The tweets incited many reactions on the micro-blogging platform. Users were in awe of the space-grown food. Many dropped questions about the process of growing food in space. Some even wondered how the filling inside the tacos managed to remain intact in microgravity.
Happy pepper picking day aboard the
@Space_Station
!Hot pepperToday
@Astro_Sabot
gets the honor of harvesting the station’s first crop of chile peppers as a part of the Plant Habitat-04 study, one of the most challenging station plant experiments to date.
click hereMore interesting comments flooded in. A user (@Alexandrinian) claimed that chilli peppers grown in space would sell at a high price at an auction. He took a fun dig at the "gourmet kind" and added, "It could even be worth enough money to refurbish the whole station."