Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) Seed Planting

Jeffrey Richards, a project science coordinator with URS Federal Services, secures Arabidopsis seeds, commonly known as thale cress, in the science carrier, or base, of the Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) inside a laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, May 9. The APH base will be delivered to the International Space Station aboard Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft on the company's ninth Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA. The APH is the largest plant chamber built for the agency. It is a fully automated plant growth facility that is being used to conduct bioscience research on the space station. Cygnus will launch on Orbital ATK's Antares rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Launch is targeted for May 20, 2018.