Martha Stewart Helps Choose Menu, Food Prepared by Alain Ducasse Formation
Vienna, Va. – March 20, 2007 — Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s leading space experiences company, announced today that their orbital client, Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., will take a specially prepared gourmet meal to the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Simonyi, who is set to become the world’s fifth space tourist, is scheduled to launch on April 7 onboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the ISS.
As a personal gesture to his fellow crew members, and the astronauts and cosmonauts already aboard the ISS, Dr. Simonyi has chosen a special gourmet meal to be shared by the group during his mission. The menu for the meal, which was prepared by Alain Ducasse’s consulting and training center, ADF, was selected by Dr. Simonyi’s friend Martha Stewart.
“I am really looking forward to sharing this dinner with my crewmates on the station,” said software pioneer and aviator, Dr. Charles Simonyi. “Although the food is very good there, it is somewhat basic, and after a couple of weeks, everything starts tasting the same. I am certain a little variation will be surely welcome.”
Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company which organized the spaceflights for the world’s first and only private space explorers, said, “Charles is an exceptional client and has great respect for the career astronauts and cosmonauts he is working with, so it is no surprise that he has chosen to honor the crew in this way. With a menu hand-picked by Martha Stewart, among Alain Ducasse’s space food creations, this meal is sure to be a treat. Space Adventures is very proud to be able to help facilitate this special dinner.”
These “French meals”, as the Russians call them, do not compete in any way with the daily meals provided by the Russians and Americans, which are served in equal numbers on the ISS. The French Space Agency, with support of ADF, proposed special event meals, known as SEMs, to be served for exceptional assignments such as crew relief missions or extra-vehicular activity. The six course meal, provided by Dr. Simonyi, includes: quail roasted in Madrian wine, duck breast ‘confit’ with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots
Dr. Simonyi reveals much more about this gourmet meal in the blog on his Web site www.charlesinspace.com. On this rich-media site, Dr. Simonyi personally chronicles his mission with photos and video of his training, additional in-depth blogs, an “Ask Charles” section where he answers questions posed by visitors to the site, and much more. Additionally, a special section is devoted just for children where they can learn about space and Dr. Simonyi’s adventure, and even earn an official “Charles in Space Mission Certificate of Achievement”.
Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity and jet flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company’s advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert Gibson, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev. For more information, please visit www.spaceadventures.com.
Erin Lundberg
Space Adventures, Ltd.
8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Ste. 1000
Vienna, Va. 22182
+1 703 894-2186
Fax +1 703 524-7176
elundberg@spaceadventures.com
www.spaceadventures.com
