Cape Canaveral, August 25: Spirits arrived at the international space station Monday. Not the ghostly ones, but the kind you drink; distilled spirits. The six astronauts won’t be sneaking a sip. It’s all for science. A Japanese company known for its whiskey and other alcoholic beverages included six types of distilled spirits in a space station cargo ship.
The supply ship contains nearly 10,000 pounds of cargo, including the six liquor samples. Suntory Global Innovation Center in Tokyo wants to see if alcoholic beverages mellow the same in space as they do on Earth. The samples will be used for experiments and will spend at least a year in orbit before being returned to Earth. An identical set of samples will be stored on the ground in Japan.
The experiment has NASA’s blessing. Spokesman Dan Huot said all research flown to the space station is agreed upon by everyone involved. It’s not the first liquor-related space study. Japan also sent up 12 mice aboard the vessel, as part of an aging study.
AP