Astronauts on the International Space Station are the first people to eat food grown in space, says NASA. The six astronauts munched on leaves of fresh red romaine lettuce. “That’s awesome,” said American Scott Kelly in a NASA video as he and two other astronauts tasted the lettuce, which Kelly tended since activating seed pillows on July 8. NASA built up to the lettuce lunch over the years by growing plants in space and testing them on earth. “This is the first and only experiment to evaluate the effect of plant life on humans in space,” says NPR.
The lettuce was grown in a system called Veggie that includes LED lights. NASA says a number of technologies “explored for these space-farming experiments also have returned to Earth over the years and found their way onto the market.”