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Author
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Topic: Space flown candy-coated chocolates
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spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-26-2008 12:58 AM
   
I recently purchased an STS/ISS food package of Red, White & Blue M&M's. I am trying to find out what shuttle flight they may have flown on. Any help would be appreciated. I can e-mail photos if that would help. |
spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-27-2008 01:03 AM
I am only venturing a guess here as to why packages of red, white, and blue candy coated chocolates would be sent up with a crew.Of all the shuttle flights only five took place over/on the 4th of July holiday. - STS-4 Launched=6/27/82 Landing=7/4/82
- STS-50 Launch=6/25/92 Landing=7/9/92
- STS-78 Launch=6/20/96 Landing=7/7/96
- STS-94 Launch=7/1/97 Landing=7/17/97
- STS-121 Launch=7/4/06 Landing=7/17/06
It would seem a patriotic gesture for the NASA food group to package red, white, and blue M&M's for at least one of these flights?Anyway, if anyone else wants to weigh in on this idea I would be happy to hear from you. |
capoetc
Member Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 01-27-2008 04:10 PM
Are you sure the M&Ms are flown? |
spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-27-2008 08:37 PM
John, thank you for the question.The answer is... I do not know. I don't want to mislead anyone on my question.  I believe that the package is a flight spare. I was just curious to see if anyone knew what flight it was intended for? |
thump
Member Posts: 575
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004
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posted 01-28-2008 08:02 AM
With the blue velcro, it would have been intended for Mission Specialist #1... |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-28-2008 10:23 AM
quote:
Originally posted by thump:
With the blue velcro, it would have been intended for Mission Specialist #1...
Are you positive of that? While colored Velcro was used during the Apollo program to differentiate crew members' items, I haven't seen the same applied to modern shuttle missions (based on the label style, packaging and other factors, I would peg the M&Ms to having been made in the 1991 to 2001 time frame). quote:
Originally posted by spacekid2:
Of all the shuttle flights only five took place over/on the 4th of July holiday.
According to a press release, M&Ms issued special red, white and blue candies in partnership with the American Red Cross, in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. |
thump
Member Posts: 575
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004
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posted 01-28-2008 10:45 AM
Robert, I was just going on training from NASM on discovery stations that I also do for them, one being Living and Working in Space. In this cart, there is Space Shuttle era food samples (all of which being blue velcro), of which they said was MS 1. I've also seen on the individual mission menus for the astronauts, that next to their name, mission designation, there is a color notated, which fits what I've been told at NASM. I could be wrong though... |
spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-28-2008 11:06 AM
Robert, I agree with your two points and in fact, here is a part of the press release from the American Red Cross dated November 28, 2001: "The idea for the Red, White and Blue "M&M's" is the result of our employees coming to us in the wake of the September 11th attacks and asking what we could do, as a company, to help America," says Paul S. Michaels, President Masterfoods USA, a MARS, Incorporated company. "The 'Taking Care of America Every Day' campaign is a great way for us to involve our employees in this patriotic contribution to the American Red Cross so that it can continue to do the work of assisting individuals and families affected by disasters and enabling them to resume their normal lives." So, this information does help to identify when these red, white, & blue packages would have flown. And that was during or after 2001. So the search continues as to which flight(s) these packages would have flown. |
spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-28-2008 11:17 AM
Thump, you may already know this...Each astronaut is assigned a color code during their flight and these codes are used for each food package. They use color dots on each food package to identify whose food package it is. If you search the NASA Human Space Flight Images for meals a number of photos show up where you can see the color dots on food packages. Anyway I thought I would mention this. |
thump
Member Posts: 575
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004
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posted 01-28-2008 01:17 PM
Paul, Yes, that was what I was elaborating to. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-28-2008 01:22 PM
The color dots are different than the Velcro circles. Also, there are M&Ms packages that are flown as pantry items as snacks, and therefore are not marked for a particular crew member. |
spacekid2
Member Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 02-24-2008 08:27 PM
I wanted to share my findings on the Mystery of my "Star-Spangled Banner"  M&M's package. Although I have not finshed my investigation I am closing in on the answer to the question: What flight these M&M's may have flown? Here is what I now know. After careful review of all STS/ISS flight photos from Dec-2001 until Feb-2008 only one flight showed the Red, White and Blue M&M's and that was "Return to Flight" STS-114.  All other flights from STS-108 (Dec.2001) to STS-122 (Feb. 2008) have at least one photo of the normal colored M&M's. If someone else comes across another flight photo with the Red, White & Blue M&M's please post here. It is my conclusion for now that the package I have is from that historic flight. Obviously, without any written record I cannot claim 100%. But being a High School History teacher it was a fun project. Thanks to everyone who helped out with your thoughts and input. |
OV-105
Member Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted 02-25-2008 07:52 PM
I will put this into the mix. They have M&M stores where you can buy any color of M&M. So NASA could have got them there. I haven't been to Houston in over 15 years so I do not know if they have one in the area. |
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