Shown here is the Skylab food heating and serving tray with food, drink, and utensils. The tray contained heating elements for preparing the individual food packets. The food on Skylab was a great improvement over that on earlier spaceflights. It was no longer necessary to squeeze liquified food from plastic tubes. Skylab's kitchen in the Orbital Workshop wardroom was so equipped that each crewman could select his own menu and prepare it to his own taste. The Marshall Space Flight Center had program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

Shown here is the Skylab food heating and serving tray in its stowed position. The Marshall Space Flight Center had program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

STS009-05-0153 (28 Nov. - 8 Dec. 1983) --- Though STS-9 was the space shuttle Columbia's sixth spaceflight, it was the first opportunity for an onboard galley, some of the results of which are shown in this 35mm scene on the flight deck. The metal tray makes for easy preparation and serving of in-space meals for crew members. This crewman is seated at the pilot's station on the flight deck. The actual galley is located in the middeck. Photo credit: NASA

S72-15409 (1972) --- A close-up view of a food tray which is scheduled to be used in the Skylab program. Several packages of space food lie beside the tray. The food in the tray is ready to eat. Out of tray, starting from bottom left: grape drink, beef pot roast, chicken and rice, beef sandwiches and sugar cookie cubes. In tray, from back left: orange drink, strawberries, asparagus, prime rib, dinner roll and butterscotch pudding in the center. Photo credit: NASA

Space shuttle STS-121 FIT (Fly Immunity and Tumors) payload. Using Drosophila (fruit fly) to complete the experiments. Platform used by astronauts to change out old food trays with new food trays in space to facilitate culturing new flies.

STS005-07-255 (19 Nov. 1982) --- Astronaut Robert F. Overmyer, STS-5 pilot, using beverage container and drinking straw secured in meal tray assembly (ASSY), experiments with microgravity characteristics of liquid on middeck in front of forward lockers. Overmyer also looks over packages of food attached to middeck lockers in meal tray assemblies. Carry-on food warmer appears overhead and other meal tray assemblies, personal hygiene mirror assembly, personal hygiene kit, and portrait of G.W.S. Abbey, Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Director of Flight Operations, appear on lockers. Photo credit: NASA

STS110-E-5035 (8 April 2002) --- Astronaut Jerry L. Ross, STS-110 mission specialist, along with a tray of food, floats on the mid deck of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The image was taken with a digital still camera.

S73-34198 (1 Aug. 1973) --- A close-up view of the hands of astronaut Jack R. Lousma, Skylab 3 pilot, using a silverware utensil to gather food at the food station, in this photographic reproduction taken from a television transmission made by a color TV camera aboard the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Astronaut Alan L. Bean, commander, had just zoomed the TV camera in for this close-up of the food tray following a series of wide shots of Lousma at the food station. Photo credit: NASA

This Skylab-4 mission onboard photograph shows Astronaut Ed Gibson getting ready to prepare his meal in the crew wardroom. The tray contained heating elements for preparing the individual food packets. The food on Skylab was a great improvement over that on earlier spaceflights. It was no longer necessary to squeeze liquified food from plastic tubes. Skylab's kitchen was so equipped that each crewman could select his own menu and prepare it to his own taste.

This photograph was taken during the Skylab-3 mission (2nd marned mission), showing Astronaut Owen Garriott enjoying his meal in the Orbital Workshop crew wardroom. The tray contained heating elements for preparing the individual food packets. The food on Skylab was a great improvement over that on earlier spaceflights. It was no longer necessary to squeeze liquified food from plastic tubes. Skylab's kitchen was so equipped that each crewman could select his own menu and prepare it to his own taste.

STS003-26-253 (30 March 1982) --- Astronaut Gordon Fullerton, STS-3 pilot, wearing communications kit assembly (assy) mini-headset (HDST), prepares meal on middeck. Fullerton clips corner of rehydratable food (cereal) package with scissors. The opening will allow Fullerton to insert JSC water dispenser kit water gun in order to heat contents with hot water. Meal tray assembly is secured to forward middeck locker and holds additional food packages and beverage containers. Photo credit: NASA

S77-E-5120 (26 May 1996) --- Astronauts Mario Runco, Jr. and Andrew S. W. Thomas, both mission specialists, pose for photo while in the middeck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavour. The scene was recorded with an Electronic Still Camera (ESC).

STS005-06-210 (16 Nov. 1982) --- Astronaut Vance D. Brand (in dark blue shirt), STS-5 commander; Robert F. Overmyer (left), pilot; and William B. Lenoir, mission specialist, conduct microgravity experiments with food containers and meal tray assemblies in front of middeck port side wall and side hatch. Brand prepares to eat as meal tray assembly floats above his chest and Overmeyer and Lenoir look on. Sign on port side wall is labeled STS-5 message board. Photo credit: NASA

S82-26423 (January 1982) --- This is a close-up view of the rehydration unit to be used in meal preparation on operational space shuttle flights. The unit is located on the middeck of the space shuttles in the NASA fleet. Note the part of the food tray in upper right corner. Its six compartments (not all pictured) are used in space shuttle meal preparation and consumption. Photo credit: NASA

S81-30422 (12-14 April 1981) --- Astronaut John W. Young, STS-1 commander, cleans off his razor after shaving his face on the middeck of the space shuttle orbiter Columbia. A food tray can be seen mounted on a locker door at right. This 35mm frame was exposed by astronaut Robert L. Crippen, pilot. Photo credit: NASA

STS079-357-015 (20 Sept. 1996) --- Astronaut Shannon W. Lucid, in one her final opportunities to work with cosmonauts on her record stay in space, joins cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri in securing empty food trays to be moved from Russia's Mir Space Station to the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Cosmonaut Valeri Korzun, Mir-22 commander, is busy with other chores in the background.

SL3-111-1519 (6 Aug. 1973) --- Scientist-astronaut Owen K. Garriott, Skylab 3 science pilot, reconstitutes a pre-packaged container of food at the crew quarters ward room table of the Orbital Workshop (OWS) of the Skylab Space Station cluster. This picture was taken with a hand-held 35mm Nikon camera. Astronauts Garriott, Alan L. Bean and Jack R. Lousma remained with the Skylab Space Station in Earth orbit for a total of 59 days conducting numerous medical, scientific and technological experiments. Note the knife and fork on the food tray and the utensil with which Garriott stirs the food mixed with water. Skylab is the first manned space program by NASA which affords the crew men an opportunity to eat with the same type utensils used on Earth. Photo credit: NASA

STS026-06-018 (29 Sept. - 3 Oct. 1988) --- Astronaut John M. Lounge, STS-26 mission specialist (MS), using a beverage container, experiments with microgravity as Commander Frederick H. Hauck (left) and MS David C. Hilmers (right) look on. Lounge freefloats as he closes in on a sphere of the red liquid drifting in front of his mouth. Hauck holds a spoon while sipping from a beverage container as he balances a meal tray assembly on his thighs. Hilmers, partially blocked by the open airlock hatch and holding a spoon and a can of food, pauses to watch the experiment. Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF) and forward middeck lockers appear on Lounge's right.

S82-28912 (March 1982) --- This picture, photographed with a 35mm camera operated by astronaut Jack R. Lousma, STS-3 commander, shows astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton, crew pilot, busy with mealtime preparations aboard the Earth-orbiting Columbia. The astronaut has positioned himself in the corner of the middeck area. Fullerton holds a beverage in his right hand in an accordion-like squeeze dispenser. Many packages of pre-packaged dehydrated foods and other meal items can be seen in the photo. Many are fastened to the locker doors and to trays in the locker doors by velcro. Reminiscent of STS-2 days, a portrait of George W. S. Abbey, director of flight operations at JSC, is at left edge. Photo credit: NASA

STS004-28-330 (27 June-4 July 1982) --- Thanks to a variety of juices and other food items, this array in the middeck area probably represents the most colorful area onboard the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Columbia. Most of the meal items have been carefully fastened to food trays and locker doors (or both). What has not been attached by conventional methods has been safely ?tucked? under something heavy (note jacket shoved into space occupied by one of Columbia?s experiments). The Monodisperse Latex Reflector (MLR), making its second flight on Columbia, is designed to test the feasibility of making large-size, monodisperse (same size), and polystyrene latex micro-spheres using the products of the STS-3 mission as seed particles. The latex spheres are used in calibration of scientific and industrial equipment and have potential medical and research applications. This frame was exposed with a 35mm camera. Onboard the space vehicle for seven days were astronauts Thomas K. Mattingly II and Henry W. Hartsfield Jr. Photo credit: NASA

Research with plants in microgravity offers many exciting opportunities to gain new insights and could improve products on Earth ranging from crop production to fragrances and food flavorings. The ASTROCULTURE facility is a lead commercial facility for plant growth and plant research in microgravity and was developed by the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WSCAR), a NASA Commercial Space Center. On STS-95 it will support research that could help improve crop development leading to plants that are more disease resistant or have a higher yield and provide data on the production of plant essential oils---oils that contain the essence of the plant and provide both fragrance and flavoring. On STS-95, a flowering plant will be grown in ASTROCULTURE and samples taken using a method developed by the industry partner for this investigation. On Earth, the samples will be analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and the data used to evaluate both the production of fragrant oils in microgravity and in the development of one or more products. The ASTROCULTURE payload uses these pourous tubes with precise pressure sensing and control for fluid delivery to the plant root tray.