NASA astronauts at the International Space Station became the first in the world to taste the first bite of lettuce grown in the microgravity environment of space.
They cleaned the produce with citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipes before consuming them.
Half of the produce was kept aside which will be frozen and sent to the earth for scientific analysis.
The ability to grow food in the space will help astronauts to be self sufficient when they go for long-distance space travel as it is difficult to get supplies.
Kennedy Space Centre Advanced Life Support activities lead Dr. Ray Wheeler said: "There is evidence that supports fresh foods, such as tomatoes, blueberries and red lettuce are a good source of antioxidants.
"Having fresh food like these available in space could have a positive impact on people's moods and also could provide some protection against radiation in space."
NASA has produced the lettuce as part of its plant experiment Veg-01 to study the in-orbit function and performance of the plant growth facility and its rooting pillows, which contain the seeds.
The lettuce was grown in a Veggie system that was developed by Orbital Technologies. The system features a flat panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation.
