Rice seedlings thrive in Chinese space station

(ECNS) -- Chinese astronauts have successfully grown rice seedlings onboard the Tiangong space station.

This experiment may yield critical insights on how astronauts can cultivate staple food in orbit to support long-term missions.

Since the experiment began on July 29, the high straw rice variety seedlings have reached a length of 30 centimeters.

The Tiangong experiment is the first aiming to replicate the complete life cycle of the plant, beginning with a seed and ending with a mature plant producing new seeds.

The samples will be collected and frozen by astronauts, and finally returned to the ground for analysis.