Rookie astronaut and Discovery shuttle pilot Kevin Ford recently boarded the International Space Station and was surprised to discover that while the space food was good, space itself had an unusual tangy smell.
“It’s a very, very different environment than I expected,” Discovery shuttle pilot Kevin Ford, a first-time spaceflyer, said from orbit late Friday.
It’s said that you can never be too prepared, and although Ford was ready for outer space, he was never prepared for the weird smell.
A smell which past astronauts have described as something akin to gunpowder, ozone, or the aroma of fried steak.
“From the [spacewalks] there really is a distinct smell of space when they come back in,” Ford said from the station in a Friday night news conference. “It’s like…something I haven’t ever smelled before, but I’ll never forget it. You know how those things stick with you.”