Since the first crew arrived in November 2000, more than 200 astronauts from 15 different countries have visited the ISS. At its core, it’s a floating lab, where for six months at a time six crew members work, exercise, sleepand eat.
Providing NASA astronauts with a nutritious diet is the job of food scientists at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston. There, Maya Cooper is part of the team responsible for about 40% of the food sent to the astronauts. She says her team tries to strike a delicate balance between providing home comforts and healthy food.
“There are many items that we’ve had on the menu that were great tasting items but recently we’ve had a big sodium reduction, trying to get the sodium content on the space menu down,” Cooper says. “So we’ve had to reformulate a lot of those items, preserving the taste and the homely comfort food aspects of the food, while making sure that the nutrition is right where we need for it to be.”
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That’s right, desserts. Alongside such healthy dishes as Indian fish curry and crab cakes, the NASA menu includes chocolate pudding, lemon curd cake and apricot cobbler. NASA has even been known to send birthday cakes to astronauts. And Cooper’s reasons for providing all those treats will resonate with anyone with a sweet tooth: “You can’t live without dessert!” she says. “It’s a psychological experience!”
Try out NASA’s crab cake recipe
