@iss

The space chile peppers are finally back on Earth! Grown over the course of 137 days aboard the International Space Station, the peppers completed their journey as they came home aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship ending Axiom Mission 1, the first private astronaut mission. These chiles were grown as a part of the Plant Habitat-04 study, helping researchers learn how to grow this more complex crop in space. What scientists learn could help grow food to support astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon and Mars. So far, results have already shown that the peppers’ growth was delayed by about two weeks on the space station and that the stems that connect to the flowers and fruit were not curved at all as seen on the ground, but instead were completely straight. Now that the chiles are on Earth, scientists are able to take an even closer look at the samples. #space #science #research #plants #chiles #peppers #iss #spacestation #garndening #farming #spaceexploration #nasa