Rocket Seeds from Space!

The UK Space Agency and RHS have turned half a million UK children, including Year 10 at Down High,  into space biologists. They sent rocket salad seeds into space as part of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s historic mission to the International Space Station. After several months on board, orbiting the planet at 17,000mph, the seeds were returned to Earth and sent to Down High, alongside a batch of seeds of the same cultivar that have stayed on Earth. Over the following months Year 10 pupils grew and compared the seeds to discover whether we can sustain human life in space through the production of our own food. The results of the nationwide citizen science experiment will now be analysed to discover whether space travel has impacted on the growth of the seeds.