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A few months ago, astronaut Frank Rubio broke the record for the longest stay in orbit, orbiting our planet 5,936 times. During his space voyage, another of the milestones he achieved was to grow the first tomato in space, as part of the Veg-05 experiment, a project focused on growing fruits and vegetables in space. When he returned to Earth, the vegetable was not found and was considered lost, although it was a topic of great interest on the International Space Station (ISS), where they even joked that Rubio had eaten the tomato.
The tomato, which was about 2.5 cm wide, was harvested in a special growth chamber, using hydroponics techniques, without soil, in which the roots of the plants received a nutritious amount of nutrients for growth, according to CNN. Upon his return, Frank Rubio tried to locate the tomato, but there was no trace, and that was in March 2023.
Now, eight months later, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli announced the recovery of the tomato, which was found inside a sealable plastic bag. The vegetables – there were two tomatoes inside the bag – were “dehydrated and slightly crushed” and still “have no visible microbial or fungal growth,” according to the space agency.