Astronauts on the ISS Harvest Peppers for the First Time

Outer space is now spicier, thanks to newly harvested space peppers by astronauts for the first time last week as part of NASA’s Plant Habitat-04 investigation occuring inside the Columbus laboratory module of the International Space Station, or ISS, orbiting at about 400km above Earth.

The astronauts aboard the ISS celebrated the introduction a new life form with tacos topped with chile peppers. “Friday Feasting!” wrote NASA astronaut Megan McArthur on Twitter. “After the harvest, we got to taste red and green chile. Finally, I made my best space tacos yet: fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes & artichokes, and hatch chile!”

NASA describes Plant Habitat-04 study as “one of the most challenging station plant experiments to date.” The crew will eat some of the peppers, and the rest will head back home for analysis, according to the agency. The reason why this kind of experiment taking place away from Earth is crucial is that growing food crops for long-duration missions, such as the Moon and Mars, will be vital to astronauts.

Space peppers: Crucial for long-distance journey

The chile pepper seeds arrived at the space station in June and started growing after one month. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough initiated the experiment.

“The challenge is the ability to feed crews in low-Earth orbit, and then to sustain explorers during future missions beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations including the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and eventually to Mars,” explained Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for NASA’s Plant Habitat-04 experiment.

“We are limited to crops that don’t need storage, or extensive processing.”

Why NASA chooses peppers

Containing diverse key nutrients, peppers are also known to be one of the impeccable sources of Vitamin C. In addition, these plants are able to grow successfully in microgravity. According to NASA, “Peppers are self-pollinating, making fruit easy to grow as it only requires agitating the plants.”

As astronauts’ menu card in space is limited, it looks like these harvested peppers will add tasty variety to the crew diets.