Astronauts cook up tacos with peppers grown in space

The word "astronaut food" often conjures up images of Tang portion premix and dehydrated crystal cream. But the astronaut nutrient cooked up by Megan McArthur connected Friday went supra and beyond.

McArthur, a NASA astronaut presently aboard the International Space Station, tweeted that she had prepared tacos that included hatch chile peppers grown aboard the ISS.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station person grown the chiles for 4 months arsenic portion of NASA's "Plant Habitat-04" experiment. The bureau says the experimentation is portion of the preparations for Artemis missions, which volition research however agelong humans tin unrecorded connected the satellite and beyond.

NASA decided to experimentation with increasing peppers due to the fact that they are self-pollinating and an "excellent root of Vitamin C." They besides noted that peppers are "robust" and person "a bully accidental of increasing successfully successful microgravity."

After 2 years of tests, probe showed that hatch chiles — astir commonly recovered successful New Mexico — stood the champion accidental of increasing connected the abstraction station.

After a SpaceX rocket carried the seeds and a "science center" pod to the ISS this summer, astronauts began the process of increasing the peppers. The chiles grew successful plots of baked clay installed successful the subject center, which besides included a controlled-release fertilizer and much than 180 sensors to way their growth.

On Friday, astronauts harvested the archetypal harvest of chile peppers. Some of those peppers volition instrumentality to Earth for further experimentation.

Some of the crops were eaten by the astronauts successful tacos prepared by McArthur. She tweeted that her look besides included fajita beef arsenic good arsenic "rehydrated tomatoes and artichokes."

"Finally, I made my champion abstraction tacos yet," McArthur said.