Spaceman launches cooking show

A popular Canadian astronaut orbiting the earth 16 times a day is beaming his "Space Kitchen" cooking show back down to his fans.

Chris Hadfield is an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency who has been living aboard the International Space Station since December.

He has an extraordinary rapport with his earth-based fans, regularly tweeting pictures from space to his 400,000 followers.

He also runs a question and answer feed on Reddit where he answers questions like, "How often do you hit your head?" and "What time zone do you live by?" and shares fascinating tidbits about space life.

But his most recent galactic venture is his own cooking show "Chris Hadfield's Space Kitchen", where he shows his watchers step-by-step how to make snacks in space.

Hadfield uses the videos to show people how astronauts cope with everyday things like cooking, while negotiating a weightless kitchen.

Even the smallest things, like making sure your scissors are tethered with a magnet, are all important when throwing a 0g peanut butter and honey sandwich together.

"There are all sorts of things that we would normally consume on earth that we have up here in space. We just need some minor adaptations," he says.

Among these "adaptations" is substituting bread with tortillas to avoid crumbs.

"When you eat them on earth, the crumbs fall down to the ground. But here, crumbs are just going to float away," he said.

Hadfield is aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 35.

He was the first Canadian to walk in space.

- www.nzherald.co.nz