Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, who is aboard the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), has carried with him six crop seed varieties cultivated in Kerala for experimental research. The initiative aims to study how microgravity affects the germination, growth, and viability of these seeds in space. The experiment seeks to understand how crops can be cultivated in confined environments like space stations or future space habitats.

This unique project is spearheaded by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram, under ISRO, with technical collaboration from the European Space Agency. The seeds were developed at different centres of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) and are known for their high-yield potential.

These crops will undergo experiments aboard the ISS to identify which environmental conditions in space best support plant development. Insights from this research may contribute to future sustainable farming techniques in space and other constrained environments, benefiting long-term space missions and potentially even farming in harsh conditions on Earth.