The first-ever space grown vegetable satiated the hunger of astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts at the ISS have logged in a first by eating red romaine lettuce grown in space.

The vegetable was grown in low-earth orbit and helped create history in the field of space science. It’s a great achievement as nothing could make feel better to astronauts in space than to eat vegetables grown there, otherwise they rely on packaged food sent from earth.

Experts say that food grow in space could be very beneficial for mental health of astronauts. Besides, it has much higher shelf life than packaged food items.

NASA’s eventual manned journey to Mars could have significant implications from this valuable step in space-agriculture.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly planted the vegetable in the green house on the ISS. It’s not the first time when food is grown on the ISS, but it was never eaten by astronauts until now as sent back to earth for studies.

However, NASA now gave a nod to astronauts currently living at the ISS to go ahead with eating the food grown in space.

Kelly firmly believes that mankind’s future in space significantly relies on space-agriculture. “If we’re ever going to go to Mars someday, and we will, but whenever that is, we’re going to have to have a spacecraft that is much more self-sustainable with regards to its food supply”, said Kelly.

Before consuming the vegetable, the astronauts sanitized it with special wipe. They first consumed it raw and tried again after dressing it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.