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Jonny Kim Floats His Korean Lunch Aboard the ISS — A Taste of Home in Microgravity

11:21 PM, 11/27/2025
Jonny Kim Floats His Korean Lunch Aboard the ISS — A Taste of Home in Microgravity

Jonny Kim, a Korean-American astronaut and former Navy SEAL and Harvard-trained physician, shared Korean and American dishes aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts can request "bonus food" from home to help reduce stress, ease homesickness and preserve normalcy on long missions. The photo — taken about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth — underscores how the ISS blends scientific work with daily cultural exchange.

Food plays an important role on the International Space Station (ISS), where crew members from many countries share meals that reflect their cultural traditions. Beyond the standard thermostabilized entrees and rehydratable snacks, astronauts can request "bonus food" items from home — small comforts that make long missions feel more familiar.

Jonny Kim, a Korean-American astronaut who previously served as a Navy SEAL and trained as a physician at Harvard, recently shared Korean and American dishes while aboard the ISS. The image of Kim floating his lunch captures how food serves as both nourishment and a connection to home.

Comfort and Culture in Orbit

Bringing familiar flavors into microgravity does more than diversify the menu. For crewmembers, familiar foods help reduce stress, ease homesickness and support mental well-being during months-long missions. Those emotional benefits are an important complement to NASA's formal work on space nutrition, which focuses on health, caloric needs and planning for long-duration exploration.

This photograph was taken aboard the ISS in low Earth orbit, roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet. In microgravity, meals are adapted for safety and practicality, but cultural dishes — even when modified — carry memory, identity and comfort for those who eat them.

Sharing Meals, Sharing Mission Spirit

By presenting Korean and American foods side by side, Kim highlights the cooperative, multicultural spirit of the ISS: scientists and crewmembers from many nations living, working and sharing everyday moments together in orbit.

Image details: Aboard the International Space Station in low Earth orbit; the photo shows Jonny Kim with meals adapted for microgravity.

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