orange zinnia

"orange zinnia" Its significance..

A bright orange zinnia has blossomed aboard the International Space Station, marking a first flower even grown in space makes its debut, Zinnias grow easily on Earth and blossom in abundance in summer. But on the International Space Station, where they were taken to carry out experiments, they have had trouble adapting to microgravity. Growing such flowers -- zinnias are edible -- is part of a long term NASA’s little greenhouse is known as Veggie, short for Vegetable Production System. It flew to the space station in 2014.  

The whole space gardening enterprise is designed to help scientists study how plants react to being grown off Earth, and to prepare astronauts for a future trip to Mars. It is designed to produce food with an eye to long, manned missions to Mars. The prospect of a Mars trip was one reason justified in taking over the plants' care. If we're going to Mars, and we were growing stuff, we would be responsible for deciding when the stuff needed water. These are not the first plants NASA has grown on the space station, or even the first flowers to bloom in space, but they are NASA's first flower that has grown entirely, from seed to maturity, in space.