Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) received some frozen delight from NASA as the recent successful supply delivery included real Ice Cream.
Special delivery
Usually, astronauts eat dehydrated frozen treats when in space. Supplies especially food are usually packed in sealed pouches to make it easier to store and eat. According to Science Alert, SpaceX performed the “most ambitiously orchestrated” food delivery in history. They made it possible for “real” ice cream to reach the space station.
The SpaceX CRS-12 resupply mission was launched this week from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center located in Florida.
The capsule reached and docked to the ISS last Wednesday, August 16, 2017, after completing a 36-hour journey.
Payload
SpaceX carried a 2,900 kilograms (6,400 lbs) payload. The package includes scientific equipment, basic supplies, other cargo and real ice cream.
But there’s more to the payload than desserts. The cargo brought supplies for 250 more experiments on the ISS. Some of the research will look into the growth of protein crystals in outer space. This will be beneficial to the research on Parkinson’s disease.
A “Spaceborne Computer” was also delivered to the ISS, which will be used to track the activities of supercomputers during deep-space projects. Also, there’s a new instrument delivered that will be used for measuring cosmic rays.
Out-of-this-world dessert
The cold treat was, of course, anticipated the most by the astronauts. According to NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory, they sent 30 cups in different flavors including vanilla, chocolate and even birthday-cake-flavored ice cream.
Since there’s no proper storage for frozen, ice-cold goods aboard the ISS, the crew has to finish them all in a less than a month.
The goods are temporarily stored inside SpaceX Dragon Capsule’s freezer. The reusable system made it possible for NASA to send ice cream to space.
The capsule needs to bring back scientific payload from the ISS to Earth. This means the freezer had to be emptied in a month in order to make space. Bringing back goods from the ISS wasn’t possible before because the spacecraft burns during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Nevertheless, the astronauts consider it a happy problem. Who wouldn’t want to indulge in real ice cream goodness, right? According to NASA, the crew asked for nothing fancy but the necessary stuff like coffee and condiments.
