Astronaut’s Talk Is Food for Thought

Some people are really curious about what food tastes like in outer space.

Take the group of about 35 men and women clad in business suits who met Monday for a presentation by astronaut Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff, who last year spent 10 days on the Mir space station.

The presentation, held at the headquarters of Tecom Industries on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, was a forum to showcase the company’s GPS antennas, which are used by NASA to transmit signals to satellites from both space shuttles and Earth.

Wisoff also presented Tecom with a plaque depicting a flag that was carried on both the space shuttle and Mir.

The presentation began with a short video of the takeoff of the space shuttle Atlantis and its docking procedure with Mir. The video showed picturesque blue and white vistas of the Earth, close enough to see the outline of Tokyo Bay and later the Florida Keys.

Wisoff spoke about the goals of the mission: to transfer several thousand pounds of “stuff,” drop off an astronaut and pick up another one and help prepare any completed experiments on Mir to be taken back to Earth.

After the presentation, a few people asked questions about the length of the mission, the amount of power used by the station and differences between the ways Russians and Americans conduct themselves in space.

Then someone asked Wisoff the question of the day: What is Russian space food like?

“It was good, interesting,” he said, standing in front of the room clad in a blue jumpsuit. “It was a nice change of pace.”

A short while later more food questions followed as the attendees prepared to move toward a catered lunch.

“What do Americans eat?”

“Does the food taste any different up there?’

“What was the best thing you ate while in space?”

Wisoff pondered this last query a bit before answering.

“We had some really good chocolate cake,” he said.