Veg-03 J/K/L Prelaunch Prepartions for NG-13

Aaron Curry, left, a research scientist with the Laboratory Support Services and Operations (LASSO) contract, and Jess Bunchek, a pseudonaut and associate scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, are preparing a new seed handling material for testing inside the Space Station Processing Facility on Jan. 15, 2020. The new material, called seed film, and similar in appearance to a breath freshener strip, is a water-soluble, dissolving film that addresses the challenge of handling seeds in a microgravity environment. The seed film experiment, titled VEG-03 J, involves sending seed film containing red romaine lettuce seeds to the International Space Station and monitoring the plant’s growth in space. As part of the experiment, crew onboard the orbiting laboratory will plant the seeds into plant pillows – a common method used to grow plants in the space station – themselves for the first time ever. VEG-03 J will launch aboard a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft on the company’s 13th resupply services mission. Liftoff is scheduled for Feb. 9, 2020, at 5:39 p.m. EST from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.