On the International Space Station, astronauts grew green chile and prepared space tacos.

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Space has just become a little more delectable.


Last weekend, astronauts on board the International Space Station were treated to space tacos, which were topped with green chile produced in space. Scientists started growing hatch chile — a variety of pepper found in New Mexico's Hatch Valley — aboard the ISS in July as part of NASA's Plant Habitat-04 project to learn more about "plant-microbe interactions" in space, NASA said.


Other crops, such as lettuce and radishes, have been grown in space before. Peppers, on the other hand, are more difficult to produce in space because they require a long time to germinate and bear fruit, according to NASA.


The astronauts finally got to enjoy the fruits of their effort on Friday before gathering data on the red and green peppers that were harvested, which is the first time NASA has grown peppers in space. Megan McArthur, an astronaut, uploaded images of her "greatest space tacos yet," which she created with fajita meat, rehydrated tomatoes and artichokes, and the hatch chile cultivated on the International Space Station.


"Friday Feasting!" she wrote on Twitter.


According to NASA, the chile pepper experiment is part of a larger effort to increase the number of crops astronauts can cultivate in space during future missions.


"The challenge is the ability to feed crews in low-Earth orbit, and then to sustain explorers during future missions beyond low-Earth orbit to destinations including the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and eventually to Mars," said Matt Romeyn, principal investigator for NASA's Plant Habitat-04 experiment. "We are limited to crops that don't need storage, or extensive processing."


On future missions, astronauts may be able to eat fresh green chile as a snack. It's been dubbed "one enormous bite for mankind."































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