Africa prepares to send its world-famous rooibos tea plant into space, making it the continent's second indigenous crop to do so

South Africa is preparing to send seeds from its indigenous rooibos plant to the International Space Station in October, placing one of the country’s most recognisable agricultural products at the centre of a space science experiment.

The initiative, named Rooibos in Space, was developed by the South African Rooibos Council in partnership with South African space education company MaxIQ Space, with support from the South African National Space Agency.

The seeds will spend several weeks aboard the ISS in a nanolab, where they will be exposed to microgravity and space radiation before returning to South Africa.

Researchers will plant them alongside a control batch kept on Earth and compare their germination, growth, yield and resilience.

From the Cederberg to low Earth orbit