The first ever tomato grown in space has been recovered, eight months after its suspicious disappearance.

The famed fruit was grown from a seed in microgravity by American veteran astronaut Francisco "Frank" Rubio as part of an agricultural experiment.

But things went awry eight months ago, when crews misplaced the red robin tomato and Rubio was accused of eating it.

However members of the seven-person strong crew revealed the fruit, or what was left of it, had been rediscovered.

"We might have found something that someone had been looking for quite a while," NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli said in a livestream to celebrate the station's 25th anniversary.

"Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home, has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato but we can exonerate him. We found the tomato."

The fruit was grown and harvested as part of a NASA experiment aimed at growing produce in space to prepare for longer-term missions.

"I harvested, I think, what was the first tomato in space, and I put it in a little bag," Mr Rubio told NASA in an October interview.

"I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to velcro it, and then I came back and it was gone."

The scientist, who holds the record for the longest spaceflight, recalled he took the tomato out of the safety of a plastic bag to show students, but lost track of it soon after.

At the time Mr Rubio said he spent up to 20 hours searching the space station, which is roughly the size of a six bedroom house.

Ms Moghbeli didn't say where the tomato was found, or what condition it was in once it was discovered.