Mission Alpha space food
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is on his second mission to the International Space Station called Alpha. In this video Thomas talks about his crew preference food that arrived on SpaceX CRS-22 supply spacecraft, the video was recorded on 19 June 2021 in the Zvezda module of the Space Station.
Astronauts’ full space menu comprise of a range of food designed to meet nutritional and operational requirements on board.
Because of the two hours of exercise they perform every day on the Station and a full schedule of science and operations, astronauts are expected to consume approximately 3000 calories per day in space. For ESA astronauts such as Thomas, two thirds of this calorie intake come from the basic food supply that is preselected and prepacked by NASA for the entire space mission.
The final third of their calories comes from ‘crew choice meals’ – food that the astronauts choose for themselves, either from the US menu or a range of European, Russian and Japanese options.
Before any mission to the Space Station, the astronauts participate in several space food tasting sessions to help determine what dishes will be included in the basic food supply. During a training course they test a range of different food and drink items and rate each of them in a questionnaire. This information is then provided to NASA’s food lab which determines the final food package.
Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.
Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.
Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.
