Kennedy Space Center scientists worked with OSRAM to insert a smart horticulture lighting system prototype into a food production system. The Phytofy RL prototype LED provides similar wavelength capability to a plant growth system currently on orbit. Photofy RL provides another avenue for future investigators conducting flight experiments to perform ground tests prior to flight under similar lighting conditions. The Phytofy RLs have been used to successfully grow microgreens of Wasabi, Tokyo Bekana, Mizuna, Broccoli, Garnet Giant, and Cauliflower.

Shown here are microgreens – a quick-growing, highly nutritious crop – inside the Plant Production Area at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility in Florida on April 17, 2023. The microgreens will be used to make mixes to create complex flavors to help with menu fatigue in space.

jsc2023e065214 (2/7/2023) --- Eighth grade student researchers work on their experiment, Microgreen Growth in Microgravity Environment, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP).

jsc2023e065196 (10/26/2023) --- Student researchers Lonappan John and Aadrita Roywork on their experiment, The Changes of Nutritional and Germination values of Sesame Microgreens in Microgravity, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP).

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, tours a plant research laboratory and samples a microgreen inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 7, 2018. Behind Bridenstine is Bryan Onate, Advanced Plant Habitat project manager. Bridenstine received updates on research and technology accomplishments during his visit to the SSPF.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, far left, tours a plant research laboratory inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 7, 2018. Bridenstine selects a microgreen to sample from Matt Romeyn, project scientist. Behind Bridenstine, from left, are Bryan Onate, Advanced Plant Habitat project manager, and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana. Bridenstine received updates on research and technology accomplishments during his visit to the SSPF.

jsc2023e065195 (10/19/2023) --- Student researchers Nathan Bohra, Crystal Heidenreich, Savannah Kersey, Ricardo Melendez, Sanjana Rao, and Nichita Scobelev work on their experiment, The Microgreen of the Future: Amaranthus tricolor, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP).

This photograph shows microgreens grown at the Plant Processing Area inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. NASA Kennedy is home to the agency’s space crop production research efforts, including a team focused on growing crops to feed astronauts at the International Space Station and on other long duration missions to the Moon and Mars. 

Trent Smith, a project manager in the ISS Exploration Research and Technology Program, displays microgreens grown in the same space dirt (arcillite) that is used in the plant pillows for the Veggie plant growth system on the International Space Station and in a 3-D-printed plastic matrix during the 2017 Innovation Expo showcase at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The purpose of the annual two-day event is to help foster innovation and creativity among the Kennedy workforce. The event included several keynote speakers, training opportunities, an innovation showcase and the KSC Kickstart competition.

Project Scientist Natasha Haveman (right) shows NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Stan Love microgreens grown in the Plant Processing Area inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a tour  on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Watkins and NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk,  and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (not pictured), are part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station and will explore the possibility of growing crops outside of the station’s Veggie chamber – one of two enclosed areas currently used to grow crops on the orbiting laboratory. 

From left, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk and NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins taste microgreens at the Plant Processing Area inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Watkins and Kutryk, along with NASA astronaut Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (not pictured), are part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station and will explore the possibility of growing crops outside of the station’s Veggie chamber – one of two enclosed areas currently used to grow crops on the orbiting laboratory.

From left, Project Scientist Natasha Haveman and NASA astronauts Luke Delaney and Stan Love view microgreens during a tour of the Plant Processing Area inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Delaney, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (not pictured), are part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station and will explore the possibility of growing crops outside of the station’s Veggie chamber – one of two enclosed areas currently used to grow crops on the orbiting laboratory. 

NASA astronaut Luke Delaney (front), along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Stan Love, Project Scientist Natasha Haveman, and Trent Smith, a senior leader of the NASA Kennedy Space Crop Production team, view microgreens at the Plant Processing Area inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. Watkins, Delaney, Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov (not pictured) are part of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station and will explore the possibility of growing crops outside of the station’s Veggie chamber – one of two enclosed areas currently used to grow crops on the orbiting laboratory.