Making news the world over is ‘Zinnia’, the first flower to bloom in the zero gravity of space.

US astronaut Scott Kelly took to Twitter to announce this historic success and has shared incredible pictures of this orange, 13-petalled beauty.

While the crew of the ISS has grown edible plants before, such as romaine lettuce and arugula – the zinnias are the first flowering plants to be grown, paving the way to grow crops such as tomatoes.

The flower was grown as part of an experiment astronauts are conducting on how plants grow in microgravity.