Astronaut exonerated after tomatoes grown in space found

Frank Rubio got an early Christmas gift last week. It was a pair of slightly shriveled tomatoes that were proof he had not eaten them a year earlier.

Rubio is an amateur gardener and a professional astronaut who grew the first tomatoes in space during his 371-day stint on the International Space Station.

Astronaut gardeners are exactly the same as Earth-bound gardeners in at least one regard — they are proud of their first tomatoes and eager to show them off. Unfortunately, after one of the tomatoes was featured during a live event streaming to schoolkids, the baggie it and another were in apparently floated away and could not be found.

It was, in fact, lost in space.

And that’s when the rumors started flying. Perhaps Rubio had eaten the tomatoes. After enduring months of freeze dried food presumably washed down with Tang, he could hardly be blamed.

Last week’s discovery of the missing tomatoes, a little smushed and discolored but not moldy, exonerated him.

The tomatoes were being grown using a combination of hydroponic and aeroponic soilless techniques. Both methods, which use nutrient-dense water-based solutions, are used on Earth and are particularly well-suited to high production in small areas.

The tomatoes, a variety called Red Robin, are also widely available to gardeners on Earth. It’s a micro dwarf variety that grows less than a foot tall, producing a small crop of sweet, one-inch cherry tomatoes in a very short amount of time. Semi-weeping branches covered in dark green leaves also make for an attractive plant.

If they are growing in soil, they will do fine in just a 6-inch pot or plant several in a larger pot. This is a variety you could even try growing inside over winter if you have a grow light.

You’ll probably have more success than Rubio and company had on the ISS. An unexpected drop in humidity that lasted for several days came at the worst possible time, right when seeds were just starting to germinate and need constant moisture.

The stressed plants struggled and produced just a dozen tomatoes in orbit, despite the work of a dozen people dedicated to the project along with scientists, microbiologists and statisticians from NASA and Purdue University.

They were studying several things, including crop growth in space and the psychological benefit for the crew, but they never got to the tasting part of the study. Because things had gone awry, NASA was worried about fungal issues with the tomatoes and forbid the crew from eating the harvest.

Only gardeners can understand the anguish that must come from toiling over a plant only to miss out on trying the fruit it produces.

Fortunately, most of us don’t have NASA dictating what we can eat, so we can feel free to grow and eat our own Red Robin tomatoes. If you want the true astronaut experience, smush them slightly and pair it with a nice glass of Tang.

Then call Frank Rubio and let him know how they tasted.