NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick is on International Space Station (ISS) for NASA’s SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission. The astronaut recently shared a clip of him enjoying a wedge of orange fruit on social media. We can also see Indian-origin Sunita Williams, who is stuck in space since more than 60 days, in the background enjoying the view. This food arrived at the Space Station via Russian Progress cargo spacecraft.
In the post, Dominick wrote, “We recently received some fresh fruit via Прогресс and Cygnus cargo vehicles. We celebrate every bite with these infrequent treats.”
As per a report by Digital Trends, the cargo spacecraft has brought tons of food, fuel and other supplies for the stranded astronauts. Notably, most of their food is processed and packed. However, it includes some fresh fruits for the astronauts.
Elon Musk has also reacted to this clip by writing, “Cool”. One wrote, “Your ISS content is the BEST!” while another wrote, “Happy Weekend”. One user commented, “Enjoy those rare tastes of home in space!”
For the unversed, NASA has been struggling to bring back the two astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who were sent on a week long mission. The US space agency has now started exploring the option of taking help from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. However, it has come to light that the Boeing spacesuits are not compatible with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This could cause additional risks.
Stuck in space since over 2 months, NASA has revealed that the biggest challenge they are facing is the incompatibility of spacesuits with SpaceX’s Dragon craft.
As per the official statement by NASA, “From a suits standpoint, they are really not interchangeable. You can't use a Boeing suit in a SpaceX vehicle or a SpaceX suit in a Boeing vehicle, so that would not be the plan. If the Starliner undocks and only the Dragon is available, they might have to return unsuited on the Dragon.”
However, if the astronauts come back in February 2025, NASA will have enough time to send appropriate spacesuits to them.