After eight months, the mystery of a tomato lost in space was solved when the vegetable (or fruit) unexpectedly appeared on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronaut Frank Rubio had lost the remains of a little tomato during an off-Earth harvest in March. “For quite some time, our good friend Frank Rubio, who has already returned home, has been blamed for eating the tomato.” But we can clear him. “We found the tomato,” said NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli during a live-streamed event marking the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station on Wednesday (Dec. 6).
Rubio’s tiny mishap with the tomato became a big inside joke at NASA. The 1-inch-wide (2.5-centimetre) Red Robin dwarf tomato was among the final harvests of the Veg-05 experiment, which Rubio personally maintained through some growing pains. The tomato samples were delivered to each ISS astronaut after March 29. Rubio’s share, on the other hand, was kept in a Ziploc bag and drifted away before he could take a bite.
The astronauts first acknowledged the lost tomato publicly on September 13
The astronauts first acknowledged the lost tomato publicly on September 13, when Rubio staged his own gathering in space to commemorate a United States astronaut’s unexpected record year in orbit. “I spent so many hours looking for that thing,” Rubio joked during the September ISS livestream. “I’m sure the desiccated vegetable will show up at some point and vindicate me, years in the future,” he went on to say. The ISS is larger than a six-bedroom house, yet in microgravity, things can easily drift away to unexpected areas. For such items, NASA normally follows the method of inspecting vent intakes. However, it is simple to misplace objects in a station with 25 years of stuff.
On October 13, Rubio was asked by reporters regarding the lost tomato, nearly two weeks after he returned home safely with his delayed crew after spending 371 days in space. Rubio said that the tomato was never found despite “18 to 20 hours of my own time looking for that.” “The reality of the problem, you know — the humidity up there is like 17 per cent. It’s probably desiccated to the point where you couldn’t tell what it was, and somebody just threw away the bag,” said Rubio, adding, “Hopefully somebody will find it someday: a little, shrivelled thing.”