Space Station Shortage Left Crew Leaner

The two crewmen aboard the International Space Station lost a few pounds during the five weeks they were forced to ration their dwindling supply of food, but they said Wednesday that they were no worse for wear.

U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao and Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov cut back on meat, potatoes and vegetables by half and made up for the lost calories with sweets.

“Both of us ended up losing a few pounds, but I guess that’s nothing we can really complain about,” Chiao said during a news conference from space. “A lot of people would be happy to lose about five or 10 pounds.”

The need for rationing ended when a Russian cargo ship arrived on Christmas with 440 pounds of food for Chiao and Sharipov. Also packed into the cargo ship were Christmas cards and photographs.

If the Russian ship had failed at liftoff or had been unable to dock, the space station would have had enough food to last seven to 14 days, and the crewmen would have had to abandon the orbiting outpost and return to Earth, according to NASA.

“That’s something that neither of us, nobody really, wanted to have happen,” Chiao said. “All throughout this whole thing, we kept real good spirits. Salizhan and I have been keeping each other up, joking around and it’s been very pleasant even with some of the shortages.”

One reason for the food shortage was that since the U.S. shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia disaster, NASA has relied on Russian cargo ships to deliver supplies to the space station.

And the Russian ships cannot carry as much as a shuttle.

Chiao also blamed the shortage on the previous crew members, who had permission to take some of the current crew’s supply because they were lacking food variety. The previous crewmen were Russian Gennady Padalka and American Michael Fincke.

“The last crew had gotten into our food and had failed to actively report to the ground what they had taken out of our allotment,” Chiao said.