Blue-Sky Thinking with Dr. Edward Rosenthal
The innovator helping NASA grow food in space
February 12, 2026
By Wendy Kiesewetter
Sarasota inventor Dr. Edward Rosenthal (Florida Inventors Hall of Fame + Space Technology Hall of Fame) has spent decades rethinking how plants grow in space, pioneering technology that’s now used aboard the International Space Station.
That bold, unconventional spirit is exactly what drives The Blue-Sky Boys: a celebration of the maverick thinkers who dared to imagine the moonshot before it existed.
Big leaps begin with big ideas -- and here's proof!
Blue-Sky Thinking with Dr. Edward Rosenthal
Growing Food...in Space?
When JFK challenged America to reach the moon, engineers had to invent what didn’t yet exist. Today, scientists face a similar question: How do we sustain life beyond Earth?
Maverick Mindset
In 2015, astronauts harvested and ate lettuce grown aboard the ISS. With Dr. Rosenthal’s help, a NASA space plant biology team grew veggies in the ISS with no gravity, light, soil, oxygen, or water. They overcame these five seemingly impossible challenges.
In these photos, Dr. Gioia Massa (NASA scientist) and Betty & Ed Rosenthal observe ground control experiments in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Inventor Dr. Ed Rosenthal reimagined how plants get nutrients in an environment where water floats and veggie roots don’t know which way is down. He made the impossible possible like Jed, CJ, and Vencel in The Blue-Sky Boys!
In The Blue-Sky Boys, a band of maverick engineers embrace imagination and creativity to make one giant leap possible. Dr. Rosenthal carries that spirit forward. Because reaching the moon was only the beginning. Now we’re learning how to live there. Imagination is still our greatest fuel.