Ice cream is blasting off for the crew of the International Space Station (ISS).

    The frozen confectionery* — not the freeze-dried souvenir version sold in museum gift shops — is packed on board the first NASA-contracted commercial mission to resupply the orbiting laboratory.

    The ice cream, which is now a surprise for the station’s current three-member crew, was confirmed as on board SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule by NASA after a pre-launch press conference on October 6 raised the possibility that it was included.

    “We talked about flying ice cream,” said NASA’s manager for the space station program, Michael Suffredini. “We try to bring up what we call ‘bonus food’ for the crew, and this is one of those flights that will have that.”

    The vanilla with swirled chocolate sauce ice cream cups won’t melt on their three-day journey to the space station thanks to a freezer on board the Dragon capsule.

    SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters,“This is the first time we are taking up a GLACIER freezer, which has refrigerated science samples in it.”

    The GLACIER, or General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator, is primarily used to preserve science samples that require temperatures between minus 160 and 4 degrees Celsius on the way to or from the space station. The mini-fridge-sized freezer previously flew aboard the space shuttle.

    The mission is the first of a dozen supply flights for which NASA is paying SpaceX US$1.6 billion to fly. This launch follows a demonstration flight in May that made history as the first commercial spacecraft to berth with the station.

    (SD-Agencies)