Astronauts drink coffee in space

In the second half of this year, the International Space Station, which has been in orbit for more than a decade, will usher its first coffee machine to satisfy astronauts' desire to drink freshly brewed coffee in weightlessness.

According to US media reports on the 17th, the coffee machine, known as Isspresso, which means "space station coffee machine", is made by Italian coffee maker Lavaza in conjunction with the Italian Space Agency and a space company, and is scheduled to fly to the space station with Italian cosmonaut Samantha Cristofreti in November. At that time, Kristofferty "will not only be the first Italian woman to go into space, but may also become the first astronaut in history to drink real Italian coffee in space."

Of course, the coffee machine that works in microgravity has some special features, such as in order to get out of the water smoothly, the coffee machine needs to work under high pressure, some of its internal plastic pipes need to be replaced by a steel pipe, and the key equipment is also backed up, so the whole machine is very complex and weighs about 20 kilograms. At present, the drinks on the International Space Station are made with dry powder and water, and in order to prevent the liquid from escaping in weightlessness, drinks, including instant coffee, are put in containers and sucked with straws.