• Question: what do you eat in space

    Asked by 353tch45 to Kirsty, Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Vinita on 17 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by 538tch47, jordan, Pang, callommmm, Carla.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 17 Jun 2016:


      Astronauts have lots of different food to eat in space- Tim has bacon sandwiches and tea! All the food is cooked on Earth and flown up to the space station by rocket. The astronauts have not got a cooker, but they do have a water heater, so all the food is ‘just add water’ or tinned.

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 20 Jun 2016:


      Pretty good food!

      Russian spacefood, American spacefood, European spacefood are all different. Russian and American made in Russia and USA of course. European is made in Italy and France. Japanese crew mostly eat American food.

      European food is the BEST!! Not just saying that – it is really tasty. There are a ton of choices and great dishes. Check this out: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/ESA_Health_Care_Network/From_tubes_and_cubes_to_haute_cuisine_-_the_refinement_of_space_food

      and Samantha shows off gourmet space skills here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4exaXdPKS3Y

      and https://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/SEMBQO6TLPG_LifeinSpace_0.html

      and Tim said “We eat fairly normal food, like you might eat on Earth, but it is out of cans or packets. Some of it is dried food to which we add water to make it edible. Other (irradiated) food comes in pouches which we place in our electrical food heater to warm up. It’s not too bad, but we try not to eat too much salt in space as it can exacerbate the loss of bone density and so the food can sometimes be a bit bland. The portions are also quite small so you have to be careful not to lose too much weight… a great excuse for eating dessert every night! My favourite foods are the breakfast menus (scrambled eggs, baked beans and sausages!). We also get a very small supply of fresh fruit every so often on the supply spacecraft”

      plus he shows us his gourmet egg cooking skills here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtNGI-tFZxU

      All the European astronauts also get bonus food from their own country – they pick their favourite dishes and a chef from their country works with our spacefood specialists and the results are very tasty!

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