NASA Astronaut, Food Scientist Discuss Thanksgiving in Space

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Nov 21, 2013, 04:29 ET

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Vickie Kloeris, the agency's manager of the International Space Station food system, will discuss the space station's Thanksgiving menus in live satellite interviews from 7- 8:30 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 27.

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The interviews will be carried on NASA Television.

Six crew members will enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner floating aboard the International Space Station in orbit 260 miles above Earth. Their menu will include traditional holiday favorites with a space-food flair, such as irradiated smoked turkey, thermostabilized yams and freeze-dried green beans. The crew's meal also will feature NASA's cornbread dressing, home-style potatoes, cranberries, cherry-blueberry cobbler and the best view from any Thanksgiving table.

Marshburn is a veteran of two spaceflights. He logged 146 days in space as part of space station expeditions 35 and 36 beginning in December 2012. Marshburn spent 16 days in space in July 2009 as part of space shuttle mission STS-127, a space station assembly mission. He has conducted four spacewalks totaling more than 24 hours.

NASA food scientist Vickie Kloeris has been involved in space food development and production since 1985. She has managed the space station food system since January 2000 and is responsible for every aspect of the station's food system including all U.S. flight food shipments and new food item development. She also manages the food systems laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA is researching and developing ways to extend the shelf-life of food needed for deep space missions, and how to minimize the volume of packaging. The agency also is using the International Space Station as a laboratory to learn how to grow plants in space.

To arrange an interview, news media representatives should contact Seth Marcantel at [email protected] or 281-792-7515 no later than 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25.

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio will celebrate the American holiday with their Expedition 38 colleagues Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Oleg Kotov, Mikhail Tyurin and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency. The six men are conducting about 200 research experiments and scientific investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory.

New video of Hopkins and Mastracchio discussing the station crew's plans for celebrating Thanksgiving and space food is available. For footage, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews

For additional imagery and b-roll of space food and living aboard the space station, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1b8yd8a

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the International Space Station and Expedition 38, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA