Expedition 61 crew members NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch, left, Aleksandr A. Skvortsov of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir, Oleg I. Skripochka of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Andrew R. Morgan, and Luca S. Parmitano of the European Space Agency celebrate Thanksgiving together on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be far away from family and friends this Thanksgiving but will still enjoy what sounds like a great meal.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked and delivered supplies Nov. 11 that included holiday treats for the Expedition 70 crew from NASA. This year’s menu includes turkey, duck, quail, seafood, cranberry sauce, kits to make pizza, hummus, salsa and olives. The crew can enjoy chocolate, pumpkin spice cappuccino, rice cakes, and mochi for dessert.
That’s not all. Oranges, apples, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and a selection of specialty cheeses were also prepped for the crew, said Dana Weigel, deputy program manager of the International Space Station Program, in NASA’s media teleconference for the SpaceX CRS-29 Prelaunch [Youtube].
There’s quite a bit of science to eating in space. NASA explains it well in this video below.
The food is specially prepared at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory to be nutritious, tasty, and safe to eat in space. It’s prepped and sealed in plastic packets to ensure a long shelf life. The food can easily be reheated or rehydrated, according to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
The menu for 2023 shows how far space dining has come. Now, let’s look at some of the previous holiday meals celebrated in low-earth orbit beginning with the first.
1976
The first Thanksgiving in space was celebrated aboard Skylab 4, which launched on Nov. 16, 1973…
read more www.astronomy.com
Ad Amazon : Books UFO
Ad Amazon : Binoculars
Ad Amazon : Telescopes
