Veg-03 J/K/L Prelaunch Prepartions for NG-13

Inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a researcher measures out the calcined clay that will be used to assemble plant pillows on Jan. 16, 2019. Often used to condition baseball infields, the clay’s size and roughness traps air and absorbs water to provide both to plant roots in microgravity. The pillows are small containers used to grow plants in space aboard the International Space Station. The pillows are for a series of plant experiments called VEG-03 J/K/L that will monitor the growth of three types of leafy greens and test a new way of handling seeds. The experiments will be launched to the orbiting laboratory aboard a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft on the company’s 13th resupply services mission. Liftoff is scheduled for Feb. 9, 2020, at 5:39 p.m. EST from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.