Taking Root

GARDENING, HIGH AND LOW:  Today, we took dozens of tomato and tomatillo starts from our kitchen counter out to our raised bed. The weather is supposed to be warm and nice for the next few days, and we thought this a good time to get our babies out into the world.

For some inspiration before we toiled in the soil, I showed the kids a Reel NASA video about gardening the astronauts and cosmonauts are doing on the International Space Station. For instance, they've grown some red Romaine lettuce that looked really healthy.

The video covers interesting things to think about when gardening in space, such as how do the roots and leaves know which direction to grow in microgravity? Are space veggies safe to eat? What kinds of microbes are living on them, and what kind of lights are used to help the plants grow on station? 

Check the video out for yourself!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgpU08WJm0c

SPOTTING:  Last night, we were thrilled, as always, to catch an ISS fly over. While we were waiting, I told the kids that we should look for SpaceX's Dragon, too, as we knew it would be playing catch up to the orbiting space station. 

At the appointed time, we spied the ISS, and scanned behind it for Dragon. Just as the ISS was about to disappear to our east, Annabelle picked out the faint, illuminated dot trailing it: Dragon!  

Actually, the cargo ship appeared to be in a parallel orbit with Dragon, a little further north/lower in the sky to our eyes.

The skies are clear here again today, and tonight there's a two-minute ISS flyover. We're betting we see Dragon better tonight, and closer to the ISS, as just six hours after the fly-over we'll be able to see, astronauts on station will grapple Dragon. After docking with the ISS, it will stay for the next five months or so.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: Christian brought home all sorts of cool things from his trip to the Space Coast, including some freeze-dried 'astronaut' ice cream from Kennedy Space Center.

Tonight, the kids had ice cream on their ice cream.