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by Maria Sofou

This is history in the making!

Astronaut Scott Kelly recently tweeted from aboard the International Space Station a series of images that show the very first flower to bloom in space!

Planted using methods developed by NASA’s Veggie program, a program that explores plant growth in space, the bright orange zinnia flower was sprouted from pods that contain fertilizer, seeds, water, and clay, under an illuminating system of LED lights.

Astronaut Scott Kelly along with Russian astronaut Mikhail Korniyenko are aboard the station as part of a year-long mission to study the effects of long-term stay in space, but their mission overlapped with NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren’s experiments with growing plants in space.

Beautiful!

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Zinnia flowers on the International Space Station seen on Jan. 16, 2016, are the first flowers grown in space part of the Veggie facility and experiment. (Scott Kelly/NASA/TNS)

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All images via Scott Kelly/Twitter

via mymodernmet