The International Space Station will receive perhaps the most important upgrade: an espresso machine!
Until now, members of the orbital station team were limited to having to drink sublimated coffee. On Monday afternoon, the ISSPresso experimental machine will be delivered to the space station by the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket, astronauts and cosmonauts will be able to brew coffee whenever they want.
This is particularly good news for NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who have just begun their annual stay on the space station.
As part of a joint venture between the Italian coffee company Lavazza, the design firm Argotec and the Italian Space Agency, ISSPresso was shown last year. When onboard the ISS, the machine simply had to be tied to the inner wall of the space station module, using spring cords.
According to the article SPACE.com in September 2014, the machine will produce coffee with a temperature of 167 degrees Fahrenheit (75 degrees Celsius), just as the machine will create pressure during the preparation of coffee, like a terrestrial machine when preparing expresso. Lavazzo will deliver capsules of coffee to the station all year round, so it will never end. Details for machines and mechanisms, and the cost of the project itself is quite low. Lavazza expects the machine to work in orbit for several years.
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be the first to experience a completely new space station coffee machine when it is put into action.
Initially, ISSPresso was to be sent to the space station on board the rocket, which was sent to replenish the station’s reserves, but when launched in October, the Antares rocket exploded and the supply mission was betrayed to SpaceX.
April 13, 16 hours 33 minutes oriental times, a rocket is launched from the air force station at Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying 4,387 pounds (2015 kilograms) of food and ISSPresso.
