Space Station Crew Proves Missing Tomato Wasn’t Eaten By Astronaut – Tasting Table

After returning to Earth in September 2023, with the tomato assumably gone forever, the good-natured ribbing continued, and Frank Rubio stood forever accused of secretly eating a part of history. He explained the accidental loss in a NASA video released on October 13, about seven months after the incident, bemoaning the fact that "a proud moment of harvesting the first tomato in space became a self-inflicted wound of losing the first tomato in space."

With the ISS spanning the equivalent space of a six-bedroom home with a gym, living spaces, anda massive 360-degree view window, there areplenty of weightless spaces for a frisky round tomato to frolic, bounce, and hide. But miraculously, eight months after beginning its freedom fling, the tomato has resurfaced to exonerate Rubio.According to fellow astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli during a December 6 commemoration of the Space Station's 25th anniversary, the tomato has officially reappeared.

There's no word yet on whether it's shriveled or a squishy blob, or even where it finally showed itself. But it's a miracle nonetheless. The tomato and its fellow clan members, which were cultivated using soil-less hydroponic and aeroponic techniques, are part of the Veg-5 studyand mission establishing agricultural production in space, supplying fresh food to future space crews aboard the ISS. The agricultural component of NASA's International Space Station also includes a program known asTomatosphere through which students in thousands of earthly classrooms study the effects of space atmospheres on tomato seeds.

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Space Station Crew Proves Missing Tomato Wasn't Eaten By Astronaut - Tasting Table