NASA launched seeds from 11 different crops on a mission that placed them outside the International Space Station, where they remained for about eight months, according to The Economic Times. Once the seeds came back to Earth, scientists examined them, the outlet reports.
The seeds were not grown in orbit during that period. They were exposed to the space environment outside the station before being returned for study, per The Economic Times. The reporting does not specify which crops were involved, the exact launch date, or what the scientists concluded from their analysis.
A separate report from The Economic Times describes a related effort in which NASA placed seeds from 11 crops aboard an experimental spaceplane in 2020. After months in orbit, scientists studied those seeds as well. The two accounts differ on the year and on the vehicle, and the available material does not reconcile them.
The work fits into a broader push to understand how crops behave beyond Earth. MyNewsLA.com reports that a professor at California State University, Northridge received a NASA grant for space agriculture research, a sign of continuing interest in growing food off-planet.
What to watch next: whether NASA or the researchers publish detailed results from the returned seeds, including how the crops performed and what that could mean for farming in space.
