Lada: ISS Plant Growth Technology Checkout

Lada, a plant growth system developed jointly by the Space Dynamics Laboratory and the Institute of Biomedical Problems for long-term deployment on the International Space Station (ISS), was launched on a Progress vehicle in September 2002. Lada, named for the ancient Russian Goddess of Spring, uses design features and technology similar to the Svet greenhouse on the Mir orbital outpost. The Lada checkout experiment produced its first crop (a leafy vegetable — Mizuna [Brassica rapa cv. nipposinica]) during October and November. The crop was shared between the crew and researchers, with about half of the crop being returned on Soyuz. This paper presents checkout experiment results and initial crew-plant interactions.