Shuttle astronauts Michael Gernhardt, left, James Halsell, center, and Susan Still give an interview from Columbia's flight deck Saturday as seen in this image from NASA Television.AP Photo/NASA TV

Shuttle food not exactly cuisine

Augusta astronaut Susan Still works on rehydrated food, occasional sweets

Web posted July 13, 1997

 Still's landing

By Amy Joyner
Staff Writer

Every time she straps into a jet cockpit, Lt. Cmdr. Susan Still takes along Lifesavers candy to nibble during the flight. So she couldn't forget her favorite candy when rocketed to space.

The Augusta shuttle pilot starts each day with a packet of Lifesavers, one of the few ``fresh'' foods she will eat during 16 days in orbit. And for dessert after eight of 47 meals, she'll munch on peanut M&Ms.

The space shuttle meals provide astronauts with a balanced diet and enough calories for the day, but they're not always very tasty.

``She said she survives on Lifesavers and M&Ms,'' said Sue Still, the astronaut's stepmother. ``She said the space food isn't that good.''

Because there are weight limits for shuttle cargo, most of the astronauts' space food is eaten dried or must be rehydrated. With the help of NASA dietitians, astronauts choose their in-orbit menus from a list of 72 items.

For her first breakfast in space July 2, Lt. Cmdr. Still ate a Southern delicacy - grits with butter served with a rehydrated sausage patty. She'll eat that same meal three other times during the 16-day microgravity science laboratory mission.

Lt. Cmdr. Still's favorite dinner entree is shrimp cocktail; she'll eat that six nights in space. Four nights, she'll dine on rice and chicken, served with Italian vegetables or green beans with mushrooms.

While in space, the astronaut also will eat spaghetti with meat sauce, beef stroganoff, beef with barbecue sauce and teriyaki chicken for supper.

For lunch, Lt. Cmdr. Still prefers peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches, made with tortillas so bread crumbs don't dirty the shuttle. She will have that all-American lunch for six of her 16 days in orbit.

For six lunches, she will eat dried beef with fruit or banana pudding. For the other three lunches, she will dine on frankfurters served with tortillas.

Though NASA still serves Tang in space, Lt. Cmdr. Still will drink it only four times. Instead, she will have apple cider, orange juice, lemonade, tropical punch, grape drink, orange-mango drink and orange-pineapple drink.

Though she gets to eat well in space, Lt. Cmdr. Still said she still misses her favorite food.

``Me personally, I miss pizza,'' said the astronaut, who ate a few slices for breakfast before her first shuttle launch in April. ``And I think most of the nonvegetarians miss hamburgers a lot.''

Still's landing

Lt. Cmdr. Susan Still, the second woman to pilot the space shuttle, returns from her 16-day microgravity science mission early Thursday morning.

The shuttle Columbia lands at 6:53 a.m. Thursday at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

A reporter and photographer from The Augusta Chronicle will be in Florida to cover the hometown astronaut's return to Earth. We'll also have live video of the landing on @ugusta, The Augusta Chronicle Online at http://augustachronicle.com. Visit the Web site for additional stories about the Augusta astronaut.

---

Home | Metro | Sports | Features | Business | Technology | Weather Classified | Comics | Kids | Interact | Television | Projects | Opinion | Calendar Search | What's New | FAQ | Znet | Archive | theWire