The Reitz Union Atrium buzzed with chatter as students and faculty gathered and watched the countdown to launch. The crowd joined the countdown with 10 seconds to go, helping send off fellow Gator Rob Ferl from his seat in Blue Origins’ RSS First Step capsule.
Ferl, a UF professor and Astraeus Space Institute director, has studied the impact of space on plants for decades. Designing experiments for astronauts on the International Space Station to perform.
But Thursday marked the first time a NASA-funded scientist has performed their own study in space—from 341,000 feet above Texas.
Ferl and five other newly dubbed astronauts launched just after 9 a.m. for a trip lasting around 10 minutes. Strapped to Ferl’s side were three tubes with plants that he activated in space, freezing their development to study the RNA back in Gainesville.
A similar experiment happened in 2021 when Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic first flew into zero gravity. An astronaut on the flight activated three tubes with plants and a fixative while Ferl activated three identical tubes at the same time from Earth.
“There’s something to be said about first-hand experience,” Ferl said in a press release. “The experiment is enriched when a human mind and a human brain go with it.”
UF supporters cheered as the flight launched and then again when it reached its peak—apogee. Ferl and the rest of the crew parachuted back to the ground in their capsule, earning another round of applause, while the booster rocket detached and successfully touched down a few minutes earlier.
The flight spun slowly during takeoff, allowing each passenger a 360-degree view of our pale blue dot.
“This moment is a milestone not just for the University of Florida and the Astraeus Space Institute but for an entire community of scientists who can now consider experiments in space that might have previously been viewed as impossible,” UF Interim President Kent Fuchs, who watched with students in the atrium, said in a press release.
Ferl and Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul, co-principal investigator for the experiment, anticipate future space voyages will need to grow plants. Ferl said the duo want to know what it takes for the plants to survive and grow beyond Earth, serving as food and air scrubbers.
The research duo were also the first to grow plants from lunar soil.
