Icelandic hemp sent into orbit for scientific study

On 23 June 2025, Icelandic hemp seeds were sent on a unique journey into space on board SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg spaceport in California.

These Icelandic hemp seeds form part of approximately 1,000 plant samples from all over the world included in the MayaSat-1 biological incubator on the "Mission Possible" spacecraft. The primary objective: to study how plant material reacts to the distinct environmental stresses of outer space.

Initially scheduled for launch a day earlier, the mission experienced a 24-hour delay for unspecified reasons—launch postponements commonly result from factors like weather or technical issues.

Now, orbiting approximately 500 kilometers above the Earth, the spacecraft is set to complete three orbits before returning through the Earth's atmosphere to land near Hawaii. The seeds are expected to return to Iceland in autumn for comprehensive analysis. This mission represents one of the first commercial attempts to send plant tissue and seeds into orbit for scientific study and subsequent retrieval.

Among the experts involved is Meta Pahernik, an agricultural specialist with over 15 years of experience researching the cultivation of Cannabis sativa. She founded the company Greina to explore how hemp can thrive under Icelandic environmental conditions.

According to Pahernik, hemp is exceptionally resilient, capable of growing effectively under diverse and extreme environments—from deserts to cold climates. It not only germinates easily but also produces rapid yields, making it suitable for a wide array of applications ranging from food and textiles to wood products and medicinal uses.

Importantly, the hemp seeds and plant tissues will not be grown during the mission. Instead, they are sent into space to study their response to microgravity and cosmic radiation.

After their brief journey in orbit, the samples will be carefully retrieved and conserved by a recovery team. If all goes according to plan, the samples will undergo careful analysis upon their return to Iceland in the autumn, potentially in collaboration with the Agricultural University of Iceland.

Pahernik hopes that this mission will successfully expose biological samples to different conditions such as microgravity and radiation so that scientists can study the effects and germinate the seeds upon their return. This would potentially mean hemp could be grown in Iceland from seeds that have experienced conditions beyond Earth orbit.

The research could also form the basis for future agricultural advances that allow plants to thrive in increasingly hostile terrestrial environments.