I stopped by the Eventi Hotel’s garden in Chelsea earlier today to attend a NASA educational event.  Four astronauts from the final Atlantis shuttle mission were there (sadly, didn’t meet them) as was the real Elmo from Sesame Street (we also did not meet).  The event’s goal was to boost public interest in NASA and space exploration through interactive exhibits, including iPhone-controlled robots from NYU-Poly’s mechatronics department, models of Mars rover parts from Honeybee Robotics and live play on NASA’s Moonbase Alpha video game, which was projected high on one of the garden’s walls.  But, what really caught my eye– just as it did during a family trip to the Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchison, Kansas circa 1990–was an exhibit of astronaut food.  Go figure.  Here are a few of those magical, dehydrated treats, along with some other odds and ends:

Cream of Mushroom Soup. I think the samples are from the ISS, which explains the Russian descriptions.

Vegetable Quiche

Granola

Chicken-Pineapple Salad (fancy!)

Also: Astronaut make up bags. Who knew Clinique had a monopoly on the space market?

Also: astronaut fashion

Also: Space crafts, courtesy of Etsy (depressed plush shuttle and bunnynaut quilt)

And, finally, an inflatable astronaut finds love (just kidding.  That hand was guiding the blinded suit-wearer through the crowd)