These tomatoes were lost on the International Space Station for almost a year<p>In an interview this fall following his return to Earth from the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio shared a little mission <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7l_eb0BTY&t=856s" data-original-link="
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7l_eb0BTY&t=856s">anecdote[/url] that had us gripped: after he’d harvested one of the first tomatoes grown in space and bagged it up for a presentation, the bag and its contents went missing. With no trace of the fruit, the other astronauts jokingly accused Rubio of eating it. Then, eight months later at the beginning of December, the lost tomato reappeared. A photo shared by <a data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1" class="no-affiliate-link" href="
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nasa-lets-ketchup-on-international-space-station-tomato-research/" data-original-link="
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nasa-lets-ketchup-on-international-space-station-tomato-research/">NASA[/url] now shows there were actually two tomatoes in the rogue sample — and, all things considered, they don’t look half bad.</p>
<p>While a tomato left to rot on Earth isn’t a pleasant thing to come across, Rubio’s tomatoes just look a bit dried out. “Other than some discoloration, it had no visible microbial or fungal growth,” NASA wrote in a blog post.</p>
<span id="end-legacy-contents"></span><div id="2f56c49e41fc40829586513c9e1ecfe5"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One small step for tomatoes, one giant leap for plant-kind.
