ISS astronaut makes kimchi fried rice in space: Does it taste any different?

If you've been dreaming of going to space, one of the points to note among many is that taking and making your favourite food there, is a limited and rare possibility. Be it your mum's signature dish or a guilty pleasure, living in space requires you to suffice in some basic food for the time being.Over the years, scientists and astronauts have been working to expand the space menu with determined research and have been making gradual progress with it.Expedition 73 is the 73rd long-duration expedition sent to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 19, 2025. The crew will be returning to Earth in November, and till then, the members have been continuing science research and maintenance activities aboard the ISS.On July 24, 2025, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, a flight engineer part of the Expedition 73 crew, had a conversation with 125 participants from 39 countries in the International Space University Space Studies Program held in Seoul, South Korea this year.After hearing how the ISU attendees had been enjoying the local Korean cuisine, Kim shared his own experience of making kimchi fried rice aboard the ISS and how it tasted.

"They've been enjoying some Korean cuisine. Did you take any Korean cuisine with you to the space station?" asked a person to Kim."Annyeonghaseyo (hello), I did, of course," began Kim. "I had a cargo mission come up that had some of my most favorite foods. So of course I had kimchi brought up. I had gochujang, which is a red pepper paste, and I had rice come up. So with those ingredients, and of course, some Spam, I was able to make my own space version of kimchi fried rice."How did it taste? Well, according to the astronaut, it wasn't as good as he could make it at home on Earth. However, in space, they have to work with the best they've got, and he "really, really enjoyed it."

Kim, 41, is known to share his culinary experiments in space on X (formerly Twitter). Previously, the astronaut with a following of 71.4K had shared a post on making sushi in space with gochujang, fish, spam, rice and wasabi.

However, in order to plate the Japanese dish, they had to make use of orient tape so that the sushi wouldn't float away.Recently, he and his crew members also shared a meal with the Axiom 4 crew, where they had shrimp cocktails and crackers for starters, savoury chicken and beef fajitas for the main course and a cake made from sweet bread, condensed milk and walnuts for dessert.

Why does food taste different in space?

Be it kimchi fried rice or sushi, according to astronauts, the food in space does not taste similar to Earth, even with the same ingredients. Why so?One of the primary reasons, as per NASA, is fluid shift. From the early 1960s, astronauts found that their taste buds were not as effective in space as on Earth. This is because fluids in the body are affected by the reduced gravity conditions. While on Earth, gravity pulls the fluid into our legs; in space, it is equally distributed in the body, thus affecting the ability to smell and taste.Additionally, in the confines of a small space like the space station, the food competes with other odours such as body odours, machinery and more and could thus 'dull' the sense of taste.