Outer Space Kosher?
 
4/9/01 - Col. Ilan Ramon, 47, from Tel Aviv, will be the first astronaut ever to get a kosher meal served to him in space.
 

On Feb 1, 2003, Ilan Ramon perished along with six of his fellow crewmembers, when the Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry into earth’s atmosphere. “Imagine the Jewish children around the globe who today know about keeping kosher and Shabbat only because a Jewish astronaut stressed their importance even in outer space,” comments Rabbi Tzvi Konikov, a friend and spiritual guide to Colonel Ilan Ramon. May the story related below, of Ilan’s spiritual preparations for his voyage into space, bring an eternal elevation to his lofty soul.

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In NASA's 40 years of flying into space, there have been a few Jewish astronauts -- such as Judith Resnick, who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986, and David Wolf, who just returned from the Endeavour flight. But no one has requested kosher food.

Until now.

Col. Ilan Ramon, 47, from Tel Aviv, is training for a U.S. space shuttle mission devoted to an international research project. He will be the first to get a kosher meal in space.

"I told them I wanted kosher food, and they told me they'd have to check it out because nobody until today has asked them for kosher food," Ramon said by telephone from Houston, where he has been training at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center since 1998.

Ramon is not particularly religious, but said that as Israel's first astronaut, "I'm kind of representative of all the Jewish community."

Rabbis were ecstatic when they heard that NASA can accommodate Ramon's request.

"This is one small step for Colonel Ramon, but a large step for Jews worldwide," said Rabbi Yossie Denburg of Coral Springs, Fla.

Ramon, a member of the Israeli air force, is the son of a German immigrant and a mother who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

"I'm in contact with a lot of Holocaust organizations, and for these people it's more than a miracle," he said. "After all they've been through, to see an Israeli astronaut, it's very exciting."

"Kosher" is a Hebrew word that means "proper" or "fit," and it is used for food prepared according to Jewish dietary and religious laws. Among the rules: Meat can't be mixed with milk; pork or shellfish are forbidden, meat must come from an animal that chews its cud and has split hooves, such as cows and sheep; meat must be soaked and salted; and the animal must be killed without suffering.

That means a new set of challenges for the space program.

Astronauts usually select their food from a wide menu that includes -- to name a few -- spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, ham salad spread, salmon, rice, eggs, nine kinds of cereal and five varieties of pudding. They are allowed special requests, such as vegetarian meals, or a favorite candy or cracker.

To accommodate their first kosher traveler into space, Vickie Kloeris, system manager for food, said NASA contacted My Own Meals, a company in Deerfield, Ill. that sells certified kosher food in "thermostabilized" sealed pouches -- meant for campers. The company has sold kosher food directly to U.S soldiers since 1993, said Joe D'Onofrio, the chief financial officer. The military started buying kosher food from the company in 1996 for all service members requesting it.

The food comes in eight-ounce foil pouches and has a shelf life of more than three years. It's perfect for space flight.

"He'll warm them and open and eat them in orbit," Kloeris said.

Of 10 kosher choices, Ramon picked five: Florentine lasagna, beef stew, chicken Mediterranean, My Kind of Chicken (which the company describes as chunks of light and dark chicken with brown rice, peas and carrots), and Old World Stew (beef with brown rice, zucchini, pinto beans and flavors of the Middle East), Kloeris said.

Ramon will sample them, and if he doesn't like those, he has a few other choices, including pasta with garden vegetables and cheese tortellini.

Ramon's launch date from Florida has not been scheduled but will likely be in 2002. He will work with the Americans on a project that will record particles of sand and dust from the desert whose distribution in the atmosphere can affect global cooling and warming.

He will also conduct an experiment involving plant seeds that is expected to be closely monitored by an Israeli middle school.

Kloeris said cramped quarters aboard the shuttle don't leave enough room to provide Ramon with a total kosher diet. He will have to eat many items from the standard menu during his 10-day flight.

That detail doesn't concern rabbis.

"Whatever he can do is great," Denburg said. "I'm sure he'll eat neutral foods, like fruits and vegetables."