ISS Crew Enjoy Kharcho Soup, Mare’s Milk in Orbit

After two days in orbit maneuvering past space debris, the historic 500th Soyuz capsule carrying Russian and Kazakh cosmonauts and a Danish astronaut, docked with the with the International Space Station.

The arrival of Russia's Sergey Volkov, Denmark's Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan's Aidyn Aimbetov brought the number of crew on board to nine, for the first time since 2013.

The Kazakh member of the crew brought a number of national dishes into orbit. Weary of regular space-food consumed via tubes, ISS inhabitants were now able to enjoy the taste of mare’s milk, two types of curd and kharcho soup.

Last month, Japanese company Suntory Global Innovation Center sent a minibar with six liquor samples to the ISS. The whisky maker wanted to see if spirits mature in space the same way as they do on Earth. An identical set of samples was stored on the ground in Japan.

The mishap with the Russian Progress cargo ship and the American Dragon forced the ISS crew to start saving food and other staples but the subsequent arrival of a second Progress ship and a Japanese space truck made life a lot easier for the crew who now have everything they need, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka said during a video linkup with Mission Control.

The current crew of the ISS consists of three cosmonauts from Russia’s Roscosmos space agency — Commander Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren, Japanese researcher Kimiya Yui and Denmark’s first man in space Andreas Mogensen.