Word: spaces
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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...
...these early tube meals were unappetizing, and astronauts dropped too many pounds. "We know that astronauts have lost weight in every American and Russian manned flight," wrote NASA scientists Malcolm Smith and Charles Berry in a 1969 Nutrition Today article. "We don't know why." Feeding people in space was not as easy as it looked. (Watch TIME's video "Why America Hasn't Gone Back to the Moon...
Floating around in space isn't as relaxing as it might sound. Astronauts expend a lot of energy and endure extreme stresses on their bodies. Their dietary requirements are therefore different from those of their gravity-bound counterparts on Earth. For example, they need extra calcium to compensate for bone loss. (Bones tend to regenerate slower in space, and the loss of mass begins almost immediately after takeoff). A low-sodium diet helps slow the process, but according to Kloeris, that's easier said than done. "There are no refrigerators in space, and salt is often used to help preserve...
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...