Piers Sellers’ Cutlery

Piers Sellers’ Cutlery

This cutlery set consists of a knife, fork and 2 spoons. It was used by British born astronaut Piers Sellers during the STS-112 mission. The cutlery is all marked with ‘shuttle’ on the handle and has a Velcro patch adhered to the packaging. The red dots affixed to the cutlery allowed the astronauts to easily identify their own items. Each crewmember was assigned a colour and their items and food were marked accordingly.

Convential cutlery has been used in space since the Apollo missions. An early example was the "spoon bowl" which allowed astronauts to eat out of a plastic container using a spoon. This was a great improvement on the earlier tubes containing pureed food which were squeezed directly into the mouth. By the Shuttle Program astronauts were issued a full set of cutlery to eat a wide range of food. The menus were designed to provide the astronauts with a balanced supply of nutrients and allowed them to select their preferred food choices.

STS-112 was the 9th assembly mission to the International Space Station (ISS). During the mission Piers Sellers took part in three spacewalks to connect a truss segment to the ISS. Sellers also flew on two other Shuttle missions and clocked up more than a month in space.

Web resources

• The History of Space Food