China launches youth activity to grow plants with astronauts

BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese popular-science activity themed "Growing Plants Together with Astronauts" was launched here on Friday.

At the online and offline launch ceremony, students from more than 30 schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan and other regions watched a video, where Shenzhou-14 astronaut Chen Dong shared conducting plant culture experiments in the space station.

The space growth experiments were launched on July 29 with ground instructions. Seed samples of two plants, Arabidopsis and rice, were installed in the life ecology experiment cabinet of the lab module. They have germinated and are now in good condition.

Students will also plant Arabidopsis and rice seeds on the ground and observe their growing progress.

The planting observation will last until Oct. 30, during which activities themed "Caring for Space Plants" and "Hand-painted Plants" will also be carried out via livestream platforms.

In these activities, experts will explain the planting unit, interpret the physical and engineering knowledge of growing plants in the space station, and show the planting progress in the space station and students' planting achievements.