Veg-03 J/K/L Prelaunch Prepartions for NG-13

Inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a research scientist is preparing to glue red romaine lettuce seeds to a sheet of seed film – a new seed handling material – on Jan. 15, 2020. The seed film is being prepared for the VEG-03 J experiment that will fly to the International Space Station on Northrop Grumman’s 13th resupply services (NG-13) mission. This seed film experiment involves crew aboard the orbiting laboratory planting the seeds into plant pillows – a common method used to grow plants in space – themselves for the first time ever. The water-soluble, dissolving film addresses the challenge of handling seeds in a microgravity environment and also can be used to deliver fertilizers and other beneficial substances that help plants grow. NG-13 is scheduled to launch from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Feb. 9, 2020, at 5:39 p.m. EST.

Date

2020-01-15

Photographer / author

NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Collection

KSC

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

photograph

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