When the space shuttle Endeavor blasted off Nov. 14, it no doubt was stocked with Tang. Orange-grapefruit Tang, probably, a flavor made only for NASA.

But food and drink on the shuttle and space station are more than Tang. Astronauts blast off with snacks and soups and shrimp cocktail and freeze-dried coffee, too. And if they want cream and sugar in their freeze-dried coffee? Already in the packet. “All you add is water,” says Michele H. Perchonok, advanced food technology project manager, shuttle food system manager and Orion food interface manager at the NASA/Johnson Space Center in Houston. In October, she spoke to a group of food journalists and showed us around NASA’s facilities.

Shuttle missions are relatively short, and the menus are devised accordingly. “We still consider missions camping trips,” Perchonok says. “You can live on candy bars for two weeks.” Not that the astronauts do, of course, but they are allowed to request their favorite snacks — as long as they’re not crumbly. “We can’t have a lot of crumbs; they float around and get into things,” she says. That’s why the salt is dissolved in water. If an astronaut tried to sprinkle salt from a shaker, the grains would float away.

And many of the foods do need salt or additional seasoning. “Food doesn’t taste quite as flavorful as on the ground,” Perchonok says. That’s because aromas increase our perception of flavor, and in zero gravity, aromas don’t rise into the nose. Another effect of zero gravity is “Charlie Brown head”: Fluid collects, heads swell, and the sense of smell diminishes.

Much of the food that goes into space is the same that anyone can buy at the supermarket. NASA repackages everything, because even the inks on the labels need government approval. Other foods are freeze-dried at the space center before they are packaged. Meats are irradiated and packaged in pouches. A daily diet for each astronaut weighs about 4 pounds — and that includes the packaging. NASA hopes to reduce that figure to 2 1/2 pounds.

On the space station, nutrition plays a more vital role. Americans are equipped with briefcase-size food warmers, although nothing is ever pipping hot. Russian astronauts are less concerned with weight restrictions, and their food is packaged in cans. Their food warmers have round indentations that the cans pop into.

And regardless of origin, the astronauts on the space station share their foods. That’s why the labels are printed in English — and in Russian.