Good news for healthy eaters & astronauts – lettuce is now being grown in space! And not only that but it’s safe to eat and even more nutritious than the lettuce grown on earth. How do we know this? NASA scientists grew red romaine lettuce on the International Space Station (ISS) and examined it to ensure it was safe to eat. 

The lettuce was grown from 2014 to 2016 in a hydroponic growth chamber which they funnily enough called Veggie. They  examined this lettuce and compared it to the romaine grown on earth using similar agricultural conditions i.e. the same temperature. And although the two lettuce had similar nutritional values, the earth-grown kind had even higher levels of unhealthy microbes. 

This is only the beginning – NASA scientists are also growing other plants like cabbage! Allowing astronauts to enjoy something other than canned food during their trips. 

Interspace dining exploration has gone a step further than vegetables: in December astronauts baked cookies aboard the ISS with a Zero G Kitchen special oven and Aleph Farms grew animal muscle tissues cells on the ISS previously. Is this the start of space food?

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