THE HISTORY OF LIVING IN SPACE

    Space travel is nothing new. The first spacecraft with a human on board blasted into space In 1961. since then, people have not only been travelling to space, but many of them have also lived there for extended periods.

Food

    All the meals on space stations are put together on Earth and sent to the space station, along with the astronauts, by space shuttle. Because the food has to last a long time (sometimes up to three months), a lot of it has to be preserved by dehydration or canning.

    The space station does not have a freezer to preserve food, but It does have a cool room to keep fruit and vegetables fresh.

Astronauts also eat many other foods such as cereals, cereal bars, nuts and dried fruit that do not need any special preparation.

    Eating

    Astronauts have a set timetable each day. This tells them when to do everything, including when to have their meals. At meal preparation time, they start getting their food ready, which often includes adding water to re-hydrate the dehydrated foods.

    Without the help of gravity, sitting down to eat can be tricky. Astronauts sometimes have to strap themselves and their food into place. Because of lack of gravity, astronauts cannot use ground salt and pepper, and all drinks must be taken from bottles. They also have to be careful that crumbs do not fly off and get stuck in vents and instrument panels.