--- title: Astronauts Are Eating The First Space-grown Vegetables Today description: NASA has grown lettuce aboard the International Space Station. canonical: https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-10T20:37:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:06:20.678Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA Astronauts Are Eating Vegetables Grown In Space og:description: Care for a Veg-01 salad? og:url: https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f9b8a6095c66a9/69885d62e20a878414a8c8ad/gettyimages-464966052.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Astronauts Complete Last Of Three Spacewalks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Astronauts Are Eating Vegetables Grown In Space twitter:description: Care for a Veg-01 salad? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f9b8a6095c66a9/69885d62e20a878414a8c8ad/gettyimages-464966052.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Astronauts Are Eating the First Space-Grown Veggies Today by [John Kell / Fortune](https://time.com/author/john-kell-fortune/) ## John Kell / Fortune Aug 10, 2015 8:37 PM UTC  In this handout from National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry Virts and Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore work outside the International Space Station (ISS) on their third spacewalk March 1, 2015 in space. In this handout from National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry Virts and Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore work outside the International Space Station (ISS) on their third spacewalk March 1, 2015 in space.NASA/Getty Images by [John Kell / Fortune](https://time.com/author/john-kell-fortune/) ## John Kell / Fortune Aug 10, 2015 8:37 PM UTC This sounds appetizing: imagine having to clean your leafy greens with citric acid-based food sanitizing wipes before being able to eat your favorite veggies. That is what it will take for NASA astronauts to be able to sample red romaine lettuce in space, eating vegetables to that were grown on the International Space Station’s orbiting laboratory. This experiment, which NASA calls “Veg-01,” is a study of the performance of the science agency’s plant growth facility. The project to bring vegetables to space has been in the works for a while now. NASA last year watered and cared for some vegetables in space and after 33 days of growth, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014 to be tested. Other steps were made to ensure the food was safe to consume, which NASA fully detailed in a [blog post](http://www.nasa.gov/mission%5Fpages/station/research/news/meals%5Fready%5Fto%5Feat). The consumption of lettuce in space is the latest in a long line of food science innovation that has occurred for decades now. For the Mercury missions, which were conducted in the early 1960s, astronauts tested solid and liquid foods in microgravity environment. But because those astronauts weren’t in space for very long, a full meal wasn’t needed. Over time, NASA has tinkered and come up with ways to make dehydrated drinks, turkey, chocolate, and beef stew. Some of the key milestones of that development can be found [here](http://The major meal was consumed prior to the flight. However, the Mercury astronauts did contribute to the development of space food. They tested the physiology of chewing, drinking, and swallowing solid and liquid foods in a microgravity environment. These first astronauts found themselves eating bite-sized cubes, freeze-dried foods, and semi-liq- uids in aluminum toothpaste-type tubes. The food was unappetizing, and there were problems when they tried to rehydrate the freeze-dried foods.). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/"},"headline":"Astronauts Are Eating the First Space-Grown Veggies Today","datePublished":"2015-08-10T20:37:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:06:20.678Z","description":"Care for a Veg-01 salad?","url":"https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/","keywords":["NASA","Tech","Food","Space","Vegetables","astronauts","international space station","iss","pubdesk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f9b8a6095c66a9/69885d62e20a878414a8c8ad/gettyimages-464966052.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Kell / Fortune","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/john-kell-fortune/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38f9b8a6095c66a9/69885d62e20a878414a8c8ad/gettyimages-464966052.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Astronauts Complete Last Of Three Spacewalks","caption":"Astronauts Complete Last Of Three Spacewalks","creditText":"NASA/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nasa/","name":"NASA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3991591/nasa-space-vegetables-iss/","name":"Astronauts Are Eating the First Space-Grown Veggies Today"}}]}] ```