Astronaut Frank Rubio checks tomato plants growing inside the ISS.
Astronaut Frank Rubio is finally off the hook! After eight long months, the remains of the tiny tomato he misplaced on the International Space Station have been found. For astronauts living in space for months at a time, fresh produce is a rare and precious treat. So, when Rubio accidentally lost his tomato, it became a lighthearted mystery that captivated the space community.
The tomato's discovery brings an end to months of speculation and gentle teasing for Rubio. While the details of its eight-month journey remain a mystery, one thing is for sure: this little tomato has provided a delicious reminder of the small joys that can be found even in the vastness of space.
"I put it in a little bag, and one of my crewmates was doing a (public) event with some schoolkids, and I thought it'd be kind of cool to show the kids, 'Hey guys, this is the first tomato harvested in space,'" Rubio said during an October media event.
"I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro it, and then I came back and it was gone."
According to NASA, the tomatoes were grown without soil using hydroponic and aeroponic nourishing techniques to demonstrate space agricultural methods to sustain crews on long-term space flights farther away from Earth, where resupply missions become impossible.