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

Jess Bunchek, a pseudonaut and associate scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, measures the seed wick emerging from a plant pillow in the Florida spaceport’s Space Station Processing Facility on Jan. 16, 2019. Researchers will then glue seeds onto the wick. A common method used to grow plants in space, the pillows are being sent to the International Space Station for a series of VEG-03 experiments that will study the growth of three types of leafy greens in a microgravity environment and test a new way of handling seeds. The experiments will be launched to the orbiting laboratory 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.