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New Year’s in space: ISS crew to celebrate with caviar, but no alcohol

The head of the Nutrition Department of the ISS Institute of Biomedical Problems of RAS said that members of the crew are not very picky about food, and they are sticking to a healthy diet

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) will celebrate the arrival of the New Year with tangerines, black caviar and apple juice, Head of the Nutrition Department of the ISS Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Alexander Agureev, told TASS on Thursday.

"As for fruit, apples, grapefruit and tangerines will be served. Also, the spacemen asked for sturgeon caviar on the occasion of New Year <…>," he stated.

When it comes to drinks, the astronauts will be having juice or water. "Fizzy drinks and alcohol are prohibited on the ISS. Hence, there will only be apple and orange juice, or water," Agureev added.

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He pointed out that members of the ISS Expedition 58/59 crew are not very picky about food, and they are sticking to a healthy diet. For example, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Oleg Kononenko ordered cottage cheese with nuts, various types of cereals and coffee for their basic daily rations.

Those on board the ISS to celebrate the arrival of the New Year are three crewmembers: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station can celebrate the New Year as many as 16 times since they orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes. Cosmonauts even joke about it, like they have an opportunity not just to welcome in New Year but also see it out by "flying in and out" of it.

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