Japan to Send Cherry Seeds into Space

Japan’s famed cherry trees have carried the hearts of a nation for centuries but they will soon enjoy another honour—their seeds being blasted into outer space. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has approved a project to send the seeds of cherry trees to the Japanese laboratory at the International Space Station, which is orbiting above Earth, officials said. Japan Manned Space Systems Corp., a Tokyo-based private-sector consortium of 55 companies, organised the cherry seeds’ half-a-year stay in space in part to see whether or how microgravity would affect them. “Scientific observation is one reason. But we also want the seeds to travel in space on our behalf as few ordinary people can go now,” Manned Space Systems spokeswoman Yuko Otake said.

Cherry trees’ annual springtime blooming is a time for nationwide revelry in Japan, where friends and colleagues hold boisterous picnics to enjoy the short-lived beauty of the blossoms. The space project will send lily and violet seeds along with the seeds from 10 cherry trees, including three designated by the government as natural treasures and touted as producing Japan’s most beautiful blossoms. Elementary school pupils in Miharu, a small northern town will pick some 200 fallen seeds in June or July for the space project. The town will share the returned seeds with research institutions.