Word: astronaut
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dietary restrictions and storage issues, astronauts still can't eat whatever they want whenever they feel like it. The space station operates on a 16-day menu cycle, and each astronaut is allotted two cases to fill with any type of non-perishable goods, such as Pringles or M&Ms. Sometimes NASA sends up a bonus item, like a birthday cake...
Today, the most elaborate outer-space meals are consumed in the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts enjoy everything from steak to chocolate cake. They even have a small beverage chiller that can serve cold drinks. The ISS is a joint venture between the U.S. and Russia, and diplomatic guidelines dictate the percentage of food an astronaut must eat from each country. NASA's food laboratory has 185 different menu items, Russia offers around 100, and when Japan sent up its first crew member in 2008, about 30 dishes came with him. Kloeris says that the freeze-dried shrimp cocktail...
...Gemini 3 astronaut John Young surprised his crew members when he pulled out a corned-beef-on-rye sandwich purchased from a Florida deli. Pizza Hut "delivered" a vacuum-sealed pizza to the Mir space station in 2001, and ISS member Peggy Whitson requested a pecan pie in 2002. Tortillas have been on every mission since 1985, when Mexican scientist Rodolfo Neri Vela brought them onboard a space-shuttle mission. In fact, NASA now provides astronauts with their own partially dehydrated tortillas made by the same company that supplies Taco Bell...
...NASA astronaut and ISS crew member Sandra Magnus became the first person to try to cook a meal in space. It took her over an hour to cook onions and garlic in the space station's food warmer, but she managed to create a truly delicious entrée: mesquite grilled tuna in a lemon-garlic-ginger marinade - eaten from a bag, of course...
Most of the dishes served on the original Apollo flights have been improved, altered or completely discarded in favor of new items. The famous freeze-dried ice cream was created on request for an Apollo 7 crew member, but the astronauts disliked it so much that it has never been used again. A few years ago, NASA tried to resolve complaints about fish-based dishes smelling "too fishy," but their solution, thermo-stabilized swordfish in tomato sauce, tasted so bad that some astronauts refused to eat it. But despite all the setbacks and unappealing concoctions, there is still one food...