Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, crew member of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, waves before a news conference at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, June 6, 2011. The start of the new Soyuz mission to the International Space Station is scheduled on Wednesday, June 8. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

BAIKONUR,
Kazakhstan – Cucumbers may be out of favor on earth, but a Japanese
astronaut said Monday that he plans to harvest the vegetable on board
the International Space Station.

 

Satoshi
Furukawa is set to blast off early Wednesday for a half-year stint in
orbit along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and NASA astronaut
Michael Fossum.

Speaking
about experiments scheduled for the next few months, Furukawa said he
would be growing cucumbers as part of ongoing studies on how future
space explorers will be able to harvest their own food.

“We wish we were able to eat the cucumbers, but we have not been allowed,” Furukawa, a doctor, said at a news conference.

Millions
of concerned consumers across Europe have been spurning cucumbers in
the wake of an E. coli outbreak blamed on contaminated vegetables that
has killed 22 and sickened more than 2,200.

Mindful
of their own health ahead of their mission, astronauts at the
Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan remain in strict
isolation in the days ahead of any launch to avoid exposure to
infection. Furukawa, Fossum and Volkov sat behind a plate of protective
glass as they talked about the highlights of their upcoming mission.

Fossum
said he was ready for the heavy workload that will come with being in
orbit as the U.S. shuttle Atlantis makes its final voyage to the space
laboratory in July.

“There is always an adaptation time when we get there, but we are going to hit the ground running. We have to,” he said.

South
Dakota native Fossum, 53, is the oldest member of the outbound crew and
has been closely involved with the design and assembly of the
International Space Station over its brief history.

“(I)
helped design the space station, I helped build it on two assembly
flights, and now to have the opportunity to live there is just amazing,”
he said.

Fossum
said that while the shuttles had completed their purpose of helping to
assemble the space station, “we are going to miss the shuttle’s
capabilities, because … they are awesome and unmatched.”

The
grounding of the shuttles will leave Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft as the
only means of ferrying crew to the station and back to Earth.

Reprising
the food-related theme, Volkov said the Russian segment will be
planting tomatoes and joked that he hoped astronauts might be granted
permission to prepare a salad. He added that “to be honest, what I would
really like is fried potatoes.”

Japan
has led the way in trying to raise culinary standards in space.
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who is in Baikonur escorting
Furukawa’s family, even made his own sushi while on the space station
last year.

Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov are due to return to earth in the middle of November.

SOURCE: The Associated Press