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NASA announced late Friday that it has successfully grown the first chile peppers in space, with astronauts on the International Space Station turning the fruit into tacos.
The U.S. space agency said the chile peppers were grown for the Plant Habitat-04 investigation.
'The investigation involved microbial analysis to improve understanding of plant-microbe interactions in space and the crew’s assessment of flavor, texture, and nutrition of the first peppers grown in space,' NASA said in a statement.
The peppers, which have been growing on the ISS since July, were from the 'Española Improved' chile, grown in the famed Hatch Valley of New Mexico.
NASA announced it has successfully grown the first chile peppers in space
The ISS Research Twitter account called it 'one of the most challenging plant experiments to date'
It is a cross between the southern New Mexico 'sandia' chile and a landrace chile, found in the northern part of the state.
Most Hatch chiles are eaten when they are green, but the ‘Espanola Improved’ is one of the few that is 'regularly consumed in both the green and red stages of the pepper’s development,' NASA said previously.
The ISS Research Twitter account called it 'one of the most challenging plant experiments to date.'
Peppers are 'more difficult to cultivate than many possible space crops because they take longer to germinate, grow, and develop fruit,' NASA has said previously.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, who has been on the ISS since April, tweeted that after picking the chile peppers, both data and dinner were served
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, who has been on the ISS since April, tweeted that after picking the chile peppers, both data and dinner were served.
'After the harvest, we got to taste red and green chile,' McArthur tweeted.
'Then we filled out surveys
