Border force intercepts NASA tomato seeds

A PACKAGE of extraterrestrial tomato seeds which spent almost six years in space onboard a NASA space shuttle have been intercepted at the Australian border.

The seeds, which had not quite been to the moon and back, were part of an experiment by the space agency in the 1980s.

Biosecurity officers recently intercepted the packets of galactic seeds imported from Italy, which had previously been launched into space and returned to Earth in the Columbus space shuttle.

Nico Padovan, head of biosecurity operations at the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, said the NASA space seeds were an interesting and unusual find that potentially posed a biosecurity risk, as they could carry unknown plant pests or diseases from Italy — or even from outer space.

“All seeds or plant material imported to Australia must meet our biosecurity conditions regardless of the country, or galaxy, they’ve arrived from,” Mr Padovan said.

The seeds were launched into space on April 6, 1984, aboard NASA’s Long Duration Exposure Facility on Space Shuttle Challenger.

The shuttle returned Earth on January 20, 1990.

“They were part of an outer space seed experiment to see if the weightlessness and long exposure to radiation in space to affects the seeds’ growth,” Mr Padovan said.

“These particular seeds posed a relatively low risk, as they did not encounter alien life forms when in orbit and the importer is keeping them on display as a collector’s item and not for sowing purposes.”

The seeds recently arrived in Sydney undeclared and Australian Border Force members referred them to specialist biosecurity officers.

The importer agreed to subject the seeds to gamma irradiation, to mitigate the biosecurity risk. Once the seeds were treated they were released to the importer.

“While the risk was low, it is another example of the gravity of biosecurity and an important reminder to correctly declare your mail items and follow our biosecurity conditions if you are considering importing plant material or seeds to Australia,” Mr Padovan said.