From sleeping to working out and preparing food, nothing is simple for people aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Now, to demonstrate the bizarre nature of a usually straightforward kitchen task, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has shared a clip of him squirting ketchup.
In the video, posted to X, Dominick squeezes on the Heinz bottle and a string of sauce stretches in a long, straight line that looks like a strawberry lace.
As it accumulates, the ketchup then forms a peculiar red ‘tower’ in his mouth, which he swiftly slurps up.
In his X post, Dominick – who has since left the ISS and returned to Earth on Friday – said: ‘This one goes out to all the ketchup lovers out there.
‘Everyone I’ve shared it with either thinks it is awesome or gross. Nothing in between.
‘Also some interesting science stuff happening.’
In the video, posted to X, Dominick squeezes on the Heinz bottle and a sting of sauce stretches in a long, straight line like a strawberry lace
One X user replied in agreement: ‘It’s a little awesome a little Gross’
Someone else posted: ‘THIS is the kind of science we need to be doing up there!’
Another said: ‘That is gross as hell, all that sugar!’
The ISS is about 250 miles above Earth, so on-board gravity is about 90 per cent of what it is on our planet’s surface.
Because of this microgravity environment, the ketchup isn’t pulled downwards as it’s squeezed out of the bottle – resulting in a satisfyingly-straight line.
On X, Dominick said he was ‘having fun’ with his crewmates before he made the return journey back to Earth on Wednesday evening.
He travelled home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft along with fellow NASA astronauts Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, plus Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
Their SpaceX craft finally splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida at 3:29am EDT (08:29am BST) on Friday.
In this NASA image, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin (left) NASA astronauts Michael Barratt (second left) Matthew Dominick (second right) and Jeanette Epps (right) are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida on October 25, 2024
This photo provided by NASA shows support teams work around the SpaceX spacecraft shortly after it landed, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Friday, October 25, 2024
The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago, but their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns.
Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.
Overall, it meant they were in space for almost eight months – marking the longest Crew Dragon mission to date.
Still aboard the ISS are Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission on the beleaguered Boeing craft went from eight days to eight months.
Also aboard are two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago – NASA’s Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos.
The foursome will remain up there until February next year.
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