
Pizza Night Galactica: Astronauts Fling Italian Food in Space
Even in space, pizza and a movie makes for a perfect weekend activity.
Image: Randy Bresnik
When a pizzaiolo tosses a pizza, the idea is that it will come back down a little wider than it was when it went up. When you make pizza in space, however, it tends to want to escape.
Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and his colleagues were in for a surprise when they received a care package in a recent supply launch that included pizza fixings. Included in the shipment were goodies like flatbread, bottled tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, olives, olive oil, anchovy paste and pesto, according to the Associated Press.
In a video posted to Twitter, the six members of Expedition 53 can be seen preparing their very own personal pizzas, cooking them and then devouring them. They also managed to take “playing with your food” to a whole new level. As Russian spaceman Alexander Misurkin spins a pizza in the air, his countryman, Sergey Ryazanskiy, motions that he should be spinning it on his finger, like a real chef.
Pass me a slice, dude. Pizzas fly from one cosmonaut to the next, as if they were frisbees. But how did the disks taste?
“Unexpectedly delicious,” said Nespoli, who will be returning to Earth in just over a week. The NASA space station manager reportedly took note of the Italian’s wistful words of pizza longing and surprised the crew.
“Pizza Pie created from scratch, the IPDS (Intergalactic Pizza Devouring Squad) says 12 thumbs up!” said Commander Randy Bresnik. Bresnik noted that the crew enjoyed a movie night after scarfing down their dinner.
Hot pizza up in space. What a treat! Wonder how much they tipped their delivery guy.
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