Astronauts at the International Space Station dined on space tacos Friday.
The tacos represent developments in NASA’s Plant Habitat-04 investigation as scientists successfully grow hatch chile peppers native to New Mexico in space through “plant-microbe interactions,” according to a NASA release.
Lettuce and radishes have previously been grown in space, but the growth of hatch chiles is significant because it takes a long time for peppers to germinate and bear fruit, making them challenging to develop in space, the agency said.
ASTRONAUTS PLANT CHILI PEPPERS IN SPACE
Happy pepper picking day aboard the @Space_Station!?️Today @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. https://t.co/f1LHkidhFn pic.twitter.com/dim8uHNZbs
— ISS Research (@ISS_Research) October 29, 2021
These are the first grown peppers in space, NASA added.
The astronauts made tacos from fajita beef, rehydrated artichokes and tomatoes, and the hatch chiles, astronaut Megan McArthur said in a Twitter post.
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 & artichokes, and HATCH CHILE! https://t.co/pzvS5A6z5u pic.twitter.com/fJ8yLZuhZS
— Megan McArthur (@Astro_Megan) October 29, 2021
They were the “best space tacos yet,” McArthur said.
NASA hopes to increase the number of crops that can be grown during future missions, according to a July release.
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“The challenge is the ability to feed crews in low-Earth orbit and then to sustain explorers during future missions beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations including the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and eventually to Mars,” said Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for NASA’s Plant Habitat-04 experiment. “We are limited to crops that don’t need storage or extensive processing.”
