A tomato grown from seed in microgravity by US astronaut Francisco “Frank” Rubio as part of a NASA agricultural experiment on the International Space Station has disappeared, only to inexplicably reappear more than eight months later, reports Guardian.

Francisco “Frank” Rubio was accused of eating a space tomatoPhoto: NASA Photo / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

Rubio was accused of eating the fruit when it inexplicably disappeared more than eight months ago.

However, the tiny specimen, or at least its remains, has already been found, as members of the seven-person crew revealed during a live broadcast this week.

“Our good friend Frank Rubio has been accused of eating tomatoes for some time now. But we can justify him. We found a tomato,” said NASA astronaut Jasmine Mogbeli.

She did not specify where the red dwarf tomato is on the space station and in what condition.

But news of red’s reappearance will come as a relief to Rubio, a US Army lieutenant colonel who returned to Earth on September 27 after spending 371 days in space, a record time, the longest time spent in space by an American astronaut in history.

In a post-landing briefing, he complained about the loss of tomatoes that had been grown as part of a space lettuce growing experiment designed to advance knowledge of how to sustain astronauts on long missions, and feared that he would forever be branded a tomato thief.

“I hope someone finds it one day, a little thing,” he told reporters, claiming he had spent up to 20 hours searching for the small tomato after it disappeared during harvest.

The particular project the tomato was a part of is officially known as Veg-05, a NASA shorthand to avoid the official name, and which involves research into growing lettuce in space and analyzing its nutritional value.

In addition to assessing the viability and effects of spaceflight on the growth of fruit crops under different lighting conditions, the experiment also includes taste tests for astronauts and surveys to determine whether interacting with plants in the space environment provided a moral boost or harmed the astronauts’ mood.

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