Astronauts Harvest First Chilli Peppers on International Space Station

NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) saw its first harvest of crops on October 29. The agency shared a photo on Twitter and mentioned that the station’s first harvest was chilli peppers. This harvest was a part of an ISS experiment, called Plant Habitat-04 study. Astronaut Megan McArthur, who is stationed at the ISS, posted another update about this feat. The crew onboard relished some tacos, thanks to the chilli peppers that they harvested at the station. McArthur tweeted, “Friday Feasting. After the harvest, we got to taste red and green chile. Then we filled out surveys (got to have the data). Finally, I made my best space tacos yet: fajita beef, rehydrated tomatoes and artichokes, and hatch chile.”

The tweets incited many reactions on the micro-blogging platform. Users were in awe of the space-grown food. Many dropped questions about the process of growing food in space. Some even wondered how the filling inside the tacos managed to remain intact in microgravity.

One such user (@spidey87824157) requested for cooking or assembling video for the tacos. He commented, “How do you even chop chilli without bits floating away?”

Another user (@loneliestpickle) posted a funny GIF of a huge taco floating in space. The reaction read, “So what you’re really saying is that taco was out of this world?”

More interesting comments flooded in. A user (@Alexandrinian) claimed that chilli peppers grown in space would sell at a high price at an auction. He took a fun dig at the “gourmet kind” and added, “It could even be worth enough money to refurbish the whole station.”

This user (@VickyFr76545922) wasn’t content with pepper farms on the station. For him, “chillies are not enough.” He suggested, in a cheeky way, that the ISS should also plan a poultry farm. “Just take two-three Broiler eggs and open your poultry farm in the bulbs, chickens will come out and then chickens will become hens and then hens will give more eggs.”