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Flowers Harvested on the Ground and in Space for Deep-Space Food Crop Research

The base tray containing zinnias is removed from a controlled environment chamber.
Zinnia plants from the Veggie ground control experiment at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida were harvested Feb. 11 in the same way that crew member Scott Kelly will harvest the zinnias growing in the Veggie system aboard the International Space Station on Feb. 14—Valentine’s Day.

Chuck Spern, a project engineer with Vencore on the Engineering Services Contract, removes a base tray containing zinnias from a controlled environment chamber in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Zinnia plants from the Veggie ground control experiment at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida were harvested Feb. 11 in the same way that crew member Scott Kelly harvested the zinnias growing in the Veggie system aboard the International Space Station on Feb. 14—Valentine’s Day.

Flowering plants will help scientists learn more about growing crops for deep-space missions and NASA’s journey to Mars.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill White