Would you like pie with that? (NASA) <\/p>\n
Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station. When she arrived on the Station, she took part in a long NASA tradition: she brought gifts from Earth for her fellow crew members. <\/p>\n
One of those gifts? A pie. <\/p>\n
In a talk about Station life at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby told the pie-in-the-sky story. Traditional gifts that astronauts bring up from Earth tend to be things like books and movies and DVDs, he said -- things to help astronauts living on the Station keep connected to the people and cultures back on Earth. <\/p>\n
In Whitson's case, though, the gift was a pecan pie, provided by her husband.\"I don't know how they got it past the food people,\" Ashby said. <\/p>\n
The problem, of course, was that in order to make it up to the Space Station, the pie had to be launched into space. Even stored in a locker aboard the shuttle that delivered Whitson and her payload, the piece was subject to g-forces. So by the time it arrived, Ashby said, \"the pie was in about half the shell.\" <\/p>\n
That was okay, though. Fortunately, Whitson had also brought up with her a food product that is both hardier and, in space, even more valuable than baked goods: hot sauce. <\/p>\n
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See original here: Would you like pie with that? (NASA) Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station Continue reading
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