Inaugural commercial space greenhouse could be in orbit as early as 2023.
Redwire Corporation recently announced its plan to develop the sole commercially owned and managed spaceflight-qualified plant growth platform in space able to grow plants from seed to maturity, according to a release.
The platform is set to launch in space no earlier than the spring of 2023. Redwire Greenhouse will act as the first commercially owned greenhouse positioned on the International Space Station (ISS).
Dewey Scientific, a commercial agricultural technology company, is Redwire’s first presumed customer for the inaugural flight. The platform will provide valuable insights for crop scientists and enhance the capability to grow full crops in space, believes Redwire.
“Redwire Greenhouse will expand opportunities for scientific discovery to improve crop production on Earth and enable critical research for crop production in space to benefit future long-duration human spaceflight,” said Dave Reed, Florida Launch Site Operations director and Greenhouse project manager at Redwire. “Growing full crops in space will be critical to future space exploration missions as plants provide food, oxygen and water reclamation. Increasing the throughput of crop production research in space, through commercially developed capabilities, will be important to deliver critical insights for NASA’s Artemis missions and beyond.”
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