If you were ever worried about astronauts not having enough ice cream, stop right now. SpaceX today launched a Falcon 9 rocket packed with it to the International Space Station (ISS).
Far from just an insanely expensive ice cream run, the tasty treats were packed into three freezers that will be filled with various research when the Dragon spacecraft returns to Earth.
“There will be chocolate, vanilla and birthday cake flavoured ice cream heading to the International Space Station on today’s launch, as well as ice cream candy bars,” said Kathryn Hambleton, public affairs officer at NASA Headquarters. What a great day to be an astronaut.
Launching from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the spacecraft also delivered around 2,900kg of science experiments and other supplies including 20 mice that will be used to suss the impacts long duration spaceflight has on biology.
This marks SpaceX’s 12th contracted resupply run to the ISS and by all accounts, it was hella successful.
Interestingly, another type of cream mission happened today as well. The Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) experiment, or ISS CREAM (ha!), also made its way into Low Earth Orbit today to measure cosmic rays in space.
You can suss the launch in the video below.
So when you climb into bed tonight, you can sleep sound knowing our brave spacefaring humans have delicious frozen treats.
