With a Swedish astronaut on board, the crew of the space shuttle Discovery are to be treated to Scandinavian delicacies including dried moose meat, crispbread and gingerbread biscuits. Astronauts on the shuttle — set for launch on December 7 — can also look foward to yoghurts especially created by a Scandinavian company for consumption in space.
"Two products that Arla have developed have been approved by NASA and they will feature on NASA's list of foods that the astronauts can choose from," the Danish-Swedish dairy company said in a statement on Friday.
The two products are a dried milk consisting of lactic pro-biotic bacteria and fruit-flavoured yoghurts that Arla has spent "many years" developing.
Christer Fuglesang, set to be the first Swede in space, has already selected raspberry yoghurt for the duration of the 12-day mission.
Fuglesang hopes to introduce his fellow crew members to other Swedish delights such as dried elk, crispbread and, "seeing as we're approaching Christmas, gingerbread," the Swedish Space Agency said.
The Discovery mission is the second aimed at building the half-finished International Space Station (ISS) since the February 2003 Columbia disaster, which halted assembly of the orbiting laboratory.
