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Peggy Whitson, the American astronaut spending her 130th day
in space, said on Sunday that she was happy in orbit, but maybe
she brought along too much shrimp.
"Sometimes, when you come to space, your tastes change.
One of my favorite foods on the ground is shrimp, and up here
I can't stand it," said Whitson, the science officer on the
International Space Station .
A quick check of the station's manifest showed that Whitson had
planned more than 40 shrimp meals for her stay.
"The guys like it because they get all my shrimp,"
she said, referring to her two Russian crewmates, Valery Korzun
and Sergei Treshcvev.
The three members of the space station's Expedition Five team
held a joint news conference with the six astronauts from the
space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday.
"I'm having a great time up here. It's fun to live here
and do the science," said Whitson, a biochemist conducting
and monitoring dozens of studies on the station.
When someone asked about her plans for Christmas, Whitson said
"It's hard to imagine being back home because I guess I feel
like this is my home right now. I don't have my husband, but other
than that, this is my home."
Whitson, due to return to Earth with Korzun and Treschev aboard
a U.S. shuttle in November, said some changes in space take more
getting used to than others.
Salsa can usually overcome space blandness. "We could probably
eat paper if we had it with salsa," she said.
But calluses are another matter. In weightlessness, she never
actually stands, but does sway about with her feet in foot restraints.
"It was really interesting to me to lose the calluses from
the bottom of your feet and to get calluses on the top of your
feet after being up here for a few months," she said.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2002-10-16 01:00
