Hungry Crew on Space Station Awaits Cargo Ship Carrying Food

A Russian cargo ship blasted off early today carrying badly needed food and equipment for the international space station, where supplies for the American and Russian crew have been dwindling rapidly.

The Progress M-51 took off from the remote Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with about 2.5 tons of food, fuel and research equipment for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao, ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies said. It was scheduled to arrive Sunday morning.

Russian and American space officials were alarmed earlier this month to learn that Sharipov and Chiao, in their second month at the station, had gone through much of their food. There was food to last seven to 14 days beyond Dec. 25 if the supply ship did not arrive.

Chiao and Sharipov, both of husky build, have cut their 3,000- calorie-a-day diets by about 10 percent – still more than most active adults consume on Earth.

A Russian Space Agency spokesman has said the two could be forced to return to Earth if the Progress does not reach the station.

Two hundred miles up in space, Chiao and Sharipov are hungering for Christmas Day as eagerly as any 6-year-olds on Earth.

They are hoping that Santa, in the unlikely form of the 15-ton cargo vessel, will bring them some thermostabilized mutton soup, pike perch in Baltika sauce, NASA’s own pasta surprise and Chiao’s special request: a big helping of dim sum dumplings.

In addition to standard space fare, each crew member has a selection of “favorite” foods – tofu and pickled cucumber for Chiao, a Chinese American, and borscht and jellied pike for Sharipov, a colonel in the Russian air force.

It isn’t clear whether the looming food shortage is a result of too many midnight raids on the station’s fridge by the crew, or station managers’ failure to accurately monitor the food on board.

An independent team was looking into how the food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly and how it can be improved.