A flower has bloomed in space for the first time ever, aboard the International Space Station. On Saturday, American astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted a photograph of a zinnia flower that had blossomed in the space laboratory. Kelly has been working there since March 2015 and has become the resident gardener on board.

This accomplishment brings space explorers a step closer to growing fresh produce in space during longer missions, which NASA hopes to do in 2018. In addition, the flowering experiment called “Veggie” will allow scientists to understand how plants grow in microgravity. Astronauts started experimenting with Veggie in 2014, when they attempted to grow red romaine lettuce in the same system in which the zinnia flower was grown.