This reading is based
on an entry from astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria’s journal. It was written November
13, 2006 on an expedition to the International Space Station. Read the passage
and answer the questions.
Flight Engineer
Thomas Reiter and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria share a meal together. Image
credit: NASA
An Astronaut’s
Journal
We do some ordinary
things every day up here in space. For example, we eat three meals a day. The
food on the spacecraft is plentiful and tasty, but it is not gourmet style!
We don’t have a
refrigerator, and, of course, we are not able to get new food during our
flight. All the meals are dehydratedor “canned” in plastic containers. But, we
also have chocolates, crackers, cookies, tortillas(no bread – too many crumbs),
various kinds of nuts and other items. Drinks also come in a bag and we prepare
them in the same way as the dehydrated food. We have several juices as well as
tea, coffee, and, of course, water.
We don’t usually eat
breakfast together (mine usually consists of juice and coffee), but we usually
pause for an hour middayto have our meal together and almost always have dinner
together.
Meals are our
primarysocial time together. During the workday we are very busy. We perform
our own tasksand we work in various modules aboardthe station. Mealtime
discussions range from technical topics to politics.
