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See how astronauts make pizza in microgravity conditions

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It’s not the 3D-printed pizza that astronauts could one day be scarfing down on lengthy missions to Mars, but it is, nevertheless, pizza in space.

This is just the kind of comfort food some astronauts hanker for during their long stints aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as evidenced by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli when he mentioned to his boss during a recent live-stream event that he really misses the cheesy dish. A short while later, he was eating one for dinner.

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The crew did, however, have to make it themselves, presumably because the Domino’s delivery guy couldn’t make the trip on his scooter.

Knowing full well that earthlings would be highly curious to see what space pizza looks like, Paolo’s fellow Expedition 53 crew member, Randy Bresnik‏, uploaded a video to YouTube over the weekend giving us the lowdown.

Truth be told, prepping pizza in space is much like prepping it at home, apart from the fact that just about everything is floating about.

Fortunately, the tomato paste that’s slathered across the base acts as a kind of adhesive to keep the topping — in the video we see plenty of pepperoni and anchovies — from floating off.

Once heated, the astronauts have some fun with their if-we’re-honest-not-particularly-tasty-looking pizza by launching them around the space station like frisbees. There’s a nice shot of the crew standing proudly with their pizza, with the astronauts and their dinner all floating together in front of the camera.

“Flying Saucers of the edible kind,” American astronaut Randy Bresnik tweeted, adding,”Pizza Pie created from scratch, the IPDS (Intergalactic Pizza Devouring Squad) says 12 thumbs up!”

Life aboard the space station

It’s not the first time the space inhabitants have shown us how they do everyday things aboard the ISS, proving that it’s never quite the same in microgravity conditions.

Former ISS astronaut Tim Peake once showed us how they make a coffee up there, and also answered the question that he said is asked the most – “How do astronauts use the bathroom?”

And we mustn’t forget astronaut Karen Nyberg’s entertaining video explaining everything you ever needed to know about washing your hair in space.

Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
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